The Portland daily press., 1881-10-12
AGRICULTURAL.
Anrio,,lt,,ral Machinery.

AQriCnltural habOhAbCAJ
The withdrawal of such large NUMBER
of farm laborers in this country and Europe,
and The rise of wages, stimulated inventors
To supply their place with machinery thal
shonIn do the work of human hands upon
sbe farm. In the harvest field man with
a cradle, in 1890, could cut from one to two
acres per day,-quite as much as could be
raked into s,gravels'' and bound by two
other laborers. Mr.. Obed Hussey, as early
as 1888 patented machine for reaping but
so crude the invention, so rude the machine.
that il did not come into use before 1914,
and in 1852 a committee OF the New YORK
Agricultural Society doubted if the machines
would supersede the scythe in the hayfield,
or the cradle in the harvesting of grain, put
invention has me on, till now the sell
binding harvester dispenses altogether WIN
human muscles in harvest. Never again
will Boaz marshal his reapers, or a 1aif hhtn
CLEAN behind them; and those rural scenes
of white shrted harvesters bending 10 their
work are all of the past. Now the farmer
drives his team aield, riding in his seat.
cutting and binding the grain,-fifteen acres
q day.
The development of the sef-bnding rea
per is one of the marves of the age II was
r. nsh' into nse IN 1874, when fittv tons of
wire were manufactured for binding sheaves;
Il. 800 once uunured TONS; in 1916, twent-
eight hundred tons; 1877, sixty-tive hundred
tons. Ia 1878. fourteen hundred tons This
last amount is quite as much as the Total
tons of wire manufactured in this country
In 1850.
Besides the self binding reaper, there is
the Cali. ornia harvester, machine that on
account of the rainless seasons in that state,
can be used to advantage. propelled by SIX
teen mules, cutting off the heads OF grain;
moving a swath twenty feet vile; threshng,
winnowing, and feeding into bags, three men
cutting aud threshing and bagging fifty a.
ores day.
Before these inventions, the Western lar
mer, during harvest, was preyed upon by
class of men known as ''binders'' who began
in lime i'm Tennessee and Missouri, and
moving northward as far as Minnesota as
the grain ripened, making the farmers ne
cessity their opportunity, demanding and
obtaining from three to five dollars day
with board, materially reducing the prof Of
the crop 10 the owner. The farmer and his
wife were slaves during the harvest season,
and in consequence of this emancipation
there was the spectacle, in 1878, IN some OF
the grain-growing SAFES, OF the burning OF
farm machinery by the men who complain
that by its use they have been thrown out
of employment.
Now. does not the use of the self-bnding
, reaper prevent those men from doing what
they have been accustomed to do? Let us
take another look before We settle down up
on an ultimate conclusion. Did Mr.. Nc Cor
mick. or Mr. Osborne, or Mr.. Wood, indi-
yidually manufacture the reapers? On the
contrary, they did not lift chisel, or place
their hand to a saw. They called upon the
lunbermen 10 supply them with lumber;
the iron-master to supply them with iron
the miner to furnish the coal. They set !;
the entire brotherhood of mechanics TO
work gave stimulus to every branch OF
industry, and employment to hundreds OF
men, before the machines were sent to the
harvest field. Their capital was scattered
broadcast like seed from the hands OF the
sower, over the entire field of industries. Is
it not manifest that while one class of la
borers are reed to do something besides
binding wheat i'm the two months of harvest,
another class of skilled laborers are employ
ed, the year round, in manufacturing the
machines? Do we not see that the ultimate
benefit is bevond all calculation? Cheap
bread has ever been regarded as one of the
greatest of blessings. The farmer by dis
pensing with human muscles, by using a
machine that will do the work of
ten or twelve men, can Oxford to sell
his grain more cheaply. He can
still have a good margin of profit,
and at the same time reduce the cost to the
consumers. So it comes about that morn
ing, noon, and night millions are sharers of
the inestfnabe blessing of cheap bread. Is
it the farmer alone who is thus cheapening
our daily loaves? Shall we say that he alone
brought $1S0.0O0,0 900 from England to this
country in 1878 for breadstuffs? Letus give
honor and credit where they are due; let us
not fall to see had it not been for the brain
labor of Hussey, Mccormick, Wood, Os-
borne, and the great hosts of men whose
names are enrolled in the archives OF the pa
tent Office, but who are otherwise unknown,
it would not have been possible for this coun-
try TO have harvested more than one quart r
or one third of the 360.000.000 bushels of
wheat produced in 1873. Through their
brain labor the world to-day has CHI ap
bread. Harder than now would be the
times. had they not brought the reaping
machines to their present degree of perfec
ton; sharper would be the distress in En-
gland, if they bad not thus devoted theirli
and employed their capital. 1t is not senti-
ment but literal truth to say that whenever
the impoverished millions of Great Britain
behold the sun sinking in the west. they
think of it as it throws its departing beams
over a land wide and fair. where there is an
abundance OF food for the furnishing of the
world, and only through failure of crop will
bread ever be dear.