90 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



the grain as fast as it was cut ; but the self-binder went beyond that 

 and by means of a mechanical attachment did the binding without 

 the aid of human labor. It was not until 1870 that the self-binder 

 was a mechanical success ; but that was not the end of invention for 

 constructing machines to harvest wheat. 



It remained for the ingenuity of man to construct a combined 

 reaper and thrasher, with which it is necessary only to drive across 

 the wheat field in order to obtain the grain ready for transportation 

 to the elevator or elsewhere. 



Cotton Gin. Without the cotton gin it would be practically 

 impossible to raise and market the cotton crop of this country, which 

 now commonly amounts to 10,000,000 bales and more annually. 

 Before Whitney's invention it is said that the labor of one person 

 was required for about ten hours to pick the seeds from 1% pounds 

 of cotton lint. At the present time one machine will gin from 1,500 

 to 7,500 pounds of lint in the same time, the quantity varying ac- 

 cording to the size and power of the gin. 



The development and creation of agricultural implements and 

 machines by the inventive genius of this country is one of the most 

 remarkable features of progress of the century. Its history is one of 

 evolution and revolution a revolution of incalculable consequences 

 to human labor and the production and distribution of wealth, with 

 an immense bearing upon the trend and character of industry, social 

 life, and civilization. 



It is no longer necessary for the farmer to cut his wheat with 

 sickle or cradle, nor to rake it and bind it by hand ; to cut his corn- 

 stalks with a knife and shock the stalks by hand ; to thrash his grain 

 with a flail, nor to drive horses over it to tread it out, nor to scrape 

 the ears of corn against a shovel or the handle of a frying pan. It is 

 no longer necessary for him to dig potatoes, nor to cut his grass with 

 a scythe and to spread it with a pitchfork that it may dry, nor to 

 pitch the hay from the wagon to the haymow in the barn, nor to 

 pick the lint from cotton seed by hand, and so on with numerous 

 operations throughout the whole range of agricultural work. 



Mechanical contrivances have largely supplanted human labor 

 in many respects, or have improved the application of labor and in- 

 creased the product of agriculture, reduced the cost of production, 

 augmented the farmer's gross income, and made his life an easier 

 one than it was before the machine period. 



This country has come to be without a peer in the manufacture 

 of agricultural implements and machines, both in quality and num- 

 ber. The manufacturing establishments for producing them in 1890 

 numbered 910, with a capital of $145,313,997 and 42,544 employees, 

 receiving wages to the amount of $21,811,761, turning out a prod- 

 uct valued at $81,271,651. One of these establishments (the largest 

 in the world), making various kinds of mowers and reapers, corn 

 harvesters, corn huskers and shredders, and hayrakes, turned out 

 187,760 machines in 1898, or, on an average, one in less than a 

 minute for every working day. 



