THE iLLiisrois fa.iim:er. 



73 



MANNY REAPER WORKS, 



At Rockford, Illinois, owTied by TALCOTT, EMERSON & CO., Successors to J. H. Mantit. 



Why Dofl't the West Manufactnre? 



This question is often asked us, and 

 we can make no better reply than to 

 point to the extensive works in the cut 

 above, and they are but one in a thou- 

 sand of similar ones to be found all 

 through the Prairie State. 



When the next census is complete, the 

 amount of capital engaged in manu- 

 facture will astonish those not well 

 posted. Some suppose that because 

 we have no cotton factories, that we 

 have no machinery, but this is a great 

 mistake. At Rockford, the Rochester 

 of the west, an immense water power is 

 used, and at Moline on the Mississippi, 

 the water power is second only to that at 

 Niagara. Those who talk of the want 

 of water power at the west, know but 

 little about it. Moline can outrival any 

 town in New England. The Rock and 

 Fox rivers pour their large volumes of 

 water over beds of limestone, and from 

 their rapid descent, could and will build 

 up manufacturing villages every few 

 miles. Northern Illinois will ere long 

 be the New England of the west, and 

 the music of the spinning jenny and the 

 shuttle will be heard, when the waters of 

 the north come pouring over the lime- 

 stone beds, and wash the great prairie 

 that can feed the million. In the cen- 

 tral and south part of the State, cheap 

 coal and wood give them a promise 

 also, while the waters that have turned 



northern wheels, now float the products 

 of our teeming soil. There is no State 

 in the Union that so happily blends the 

 interest of agriculture, horticulture, and 

 manufactures, as does our own prairie 

 State. Situated in the center of the 

 valley of the upper Mississippi, she com- 

 mands the trade of the north. She has 

 a great water highway to the Ocean 

 east, and when the Great Pacitic R. R. 

 is completed, the trade of the Orient 

 must pay us tribute. At the head of the 

 lower Mississippi w© hold the gates of 

 winter that bridge the rivers of the 

 north, and thus have an outlet at all 

 seasons by water, that cheapest of all 

 highways to the great cotton and sugar 

 fields of the South. If nature had 

 planned our State for a happy blending 

 of mechanical and rural pursuits, she 

 could hardly have bettered it, in any re- 

 spect. In the north part, abundant wa- 

 ter power, building stone and lime, wood, 

 lead, iron and copper, ore from Lake 

 Superior, with good pasturage for the 

 dairy, — at the center cheap coal for 

 cheap transportation for the products .of 

 the great corn zone— at the south superior 

 winter wheat, fruits for the north west, 

 the best of coal and timber with a cli- 

 mate soft and delicious as Italy — can we 

 reasonably ask for more ? Far better 

 that we make a reasonable use of what 

 we have, which is in most respects much 

 more than our sister States can boast. 



But we are taking up more space than 

 we intended, and have somehow left our 

 subject. The genius that gave birth to 

 the manufactory in the picture which 

 we here present, has passed to the un- 

 seen world. In 1855, at the age of 

 thirty, just entering upon the threshold 

 of active manhood, Mr. Manny, the 

 great reaper inventor, departed from 

 among us, a victim to consumption, but 

 his works remain, and wherever the gol- 

 den grain waves on prairie slope or gent- 

 ly undulating hill side or widespread val- 

 ley, there his great triumph lays it in 

 gavel ready for the binders hand. His 

 invention has nerved the arm of rural 

 labor, and the sturdy swing of the scythe 

 as with superhuman effort it laid low 

 the luxuriant grass, is no longer a reali- 

 ty; the golden grain no longer rustles on 

 the fingers of the cradle as it went sigh- 

 ing through its serried ranks ; but the 

 cadence of revolving wheels now beat 

 time to the rustle of the falling grain, 

 and sing a blithe song as they spread 

 out the lengthened swath. The pale 

 boy of seventeen, the slender frame of 

 more advanced manhood, has bent the 

 iron to his will, and the jagged edge of 

 the sickle, and the keen edged knife 

 have at his bidding sung to sleep the 

 scythe and cradle, and henceforth they 

 are consigned to do penance where jag- 

 ged rocks and the stumps of the forest 

 fallow yield but a poor return for tho 



