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MISC. PUBLICATION *1, V. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTXJBE 



of those marvelous macliines, as tlie name harvester-thresher siigfrests, 

 cut the «rrain and thresli it at the same time, pouring tlie clean wheat 

 into sacks or wagons. Such a machine, drawn through the field by a-^ 

 many as 32 horses or a giant tractor, can cut and sack the grain from 

 50 acres in a day. 



To see one of these monsters move its dusty way across a field of 

 grain, to watch the steady march of a liinder through a field of golden 



wheat, is to take one's 

 thoughts a long way 

 from the swish of 

 scythes and the beating 

 of flails — the tools of 

 harvesting and thresh- 

 ing of the long ago. 



(jreat as are the 

 changes in the ways 

 of harvesting, the har- 

 vest itself causes hap- 

 piness to-day, as it has 

 during all the thou- 

 sands of years since the 

 first harvest of all. 



In England, w h e n 

 the old-time harvesters 

 brought home the last 

 sheaves of the season, 

 some of the girls, in 

 bright dresses, rode in 

 the carts, and the other 

 reapers danced to the 

 music of pipes and 

 sang: 

 We have plowed, we have 



SOWOll. 



Wo have reai)ed, we have 

 mowed. 



We have brought home 

 every load, 



Hip, hip, hip, harvest 

 home I 



A good harvest is so 

 important to people 

 that for centuries in 

 many lands it has been 

 thought fitting to cele- 

 brate the close of tlfe 

 season in some happy 

 manner such as a " feast of the ingathering at the end of the year." 

 Our own national harvest festival is the legal holiday known as 

 Thanksgiving Day. 



All this rejoicing rests on the welfare of the frail grasslike grain 

 plants. If the ])lants are healthy, the crop is good. If the plants are 

 sick, tliey produce shrunken or worthless kernels. (Fig. 7.) Thus 

 we can un<]erstan(l that the time of harvest may be the saddest season 

 of the year in.stead of the gladdest. If the grain is a failure, all the 



I'lii. 7- 'llic slirivclcd wliciit kiTiicls wtTc pioiliiccd 

 l>.v rUHt( il wJiriit |il;inls. Tlx- pliwiip wIk'iU kcriiclM 

 wire produced by healthy whcnt plimts 



