7'J^^f £3oo ^.e. 



TO IDIJJSrD. 



From the hieroglyphics found in the mounds of ruins near 

 Thebes, we learn that the Egyptians in the Twelfth Dynasty, 

 some twenty-five centuries B. C, used the reaping hook to 

 harvest their wheat. This is the earliest known record 

 that makes any reference to either the reaping hook or 

 wheat. Both, therefore, are as ancient as the earliest 

 recorded thought — the origin of both is unknown. Sfi A 

 long story could be written about the antiquity of the 

 reaping hook — how this remarkable implement remained 

 unchanged for more than forty centuries, and how during 

 the same period man used this crude device to discover new 

 continents and carve out the destinies of empires. K The 

 early Colonial farmer plowed his fields with a wooden plow, 

 sowed his grain broadcast by hand, harvested his crop 

 with a scythe, and threshed the grain on the barn 

 floor with a flail. Today the United States is remark- 

 able for the value and number of its agricultural 

 machines and farm implements. This country 

 excels all other countries in the invention 

 and development of machines for the 

 cultivation and harvesting of crops. 



