12

The Virginian birthplace of the McCormick reaper 22

A model of the first practical reaper 27

William Deering 51

William N. Whiteley 53

C. W. Marsh 53

John F. Appleby 53

E. H. Gammon 53

Asa S. Bushnell 60

Benjamin H. Warder 60

Hon. Thomas Mott Osborne 60

David M. Osborne 60

A self-binder in Scotland, with the Wallace Monument
in the background 62

Cyrus Hall McCormick, Jr. 85

Charles Deering 85

Harold McCormick 92

J. J. Glessner 92

W. H. Jones 92

James Deering 92

American self-binders on the estate of President
Fallieres, in France 135

King Alphonso of Spain driving an American seeder 138

Bismarck having his first view of an American
self-binder 147

An American harvester at work in Argentina 151

Gathering in a Finland harvest 154

In the ancient fields of Algiers 158

The Romance of the Reaper

The Romance of the Reaper

CHAPTER I

THE STORY OF MCCORMICK

This Romance of the Reaper is a true fairy tale of American life--the
story of the magicians who have taught the civilised world to gather in
its harvests by machinery.

On the old European plan--snip--snip--snipping with a tiny hand-sickle,
every bushel of wheat required three hours of a man's lifetime. To-day, on
the new American plan--riding on the painted chariot of a self-binding
harvester, the price of wheat has been cut down to _ten minutes a bushel_.

"When I first went into the harvest field," so an Illinois farmer told me,
"it took ten men to cut and bind my grain. Now our hired girl gets on the
seat of a self-binder and d