PART FIVE— FARM MACHINERY 



CHAPTER XXIX 

 FARM MACHINERY AND AGRICULTURE 



Introduction of Farm Machinery. Farming, or the culti- 

 vation of the soil to obtain a sustenance, was a recognized 

 occupation even before the time history was first written. 

 For ages, however, there was little development in farm 

 machinery. Until the beginning of the last century nearly 

 all the work of the farm was performed by the aid of crude 

 hand tools. The number of horse- or animal-drawn imple- 

 ments or machines that had been developed were few. 



Although hand tools were used almost exclusively for 

 thousands of years, when the application of power other than 

 man power to the work of the farm began, the development of 

 machinery was very rapid. In the Twelfth Census Report it 

 is stated, "The year 1850 practically marks the close of the 

 period in which the only farm implements and machinery 

 other than the wagon, cart, and the cotton gin, were those 

 which, for want of better designation, might be called imple- 

 ments of hand production." In the early part of the nine- 

 teenth century the grain was cut with the sickle or cradle 

 and bound by hand. It was threshed by beating with the 

 flail or by the treading of animals. The plow was a crude 

 affair, usually homemade and shod with iron by the village 

 blacksmith, and the principal tool for cultivation was the 

 hoe. A cast-iron plow was first made by Charles Newbold, 

 of New Jersey, sometime between 1790 and 1796, and John 



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