Life / Agriculture & Food

Mechanical reaper

The horse-drawn reaper (Hussey 1833, McCormick 1834) cut grain far faster than hand scythes and mechanized the harvest.

Harvest was the great labour bottleneck of grain farming. Obed Hussey patented a reaping machine in 1833 and Cyrus McCormick patented his in 1834 after trials from 1831; horse-drawn reapers, later binders and combine harvesters, let a few workers bring in what once needed whole villages. Mechanical harvesting helped open the American prairies to wheat and prepared the ground for the tractor.