8. McCormick's Reaper and the Mechanization of American Agriculture

Question 1

Joesph Boyle

Answer 1

Made a scythe

• 1800
• British
• scythes in a wheel

Question 2

Patrick Bell

Answer 2

Made a scythe

• 1826
• British
• binding issues
• tried to cut wheat like scissors

Question 3

Hand Sickle

Answer 3

• one antecedent for McCormick’s Reaper

Question 4

Threshold farm size

Answer 4

• 46.5 acres in early 1850s
• falls over time because labor costs rise in mid-1850s because of slavery, labor unrest.
• Farmers who could afford to buy them did.

Question 5

John Deere’s Steel Plow

Answer 5

• Before, plows were mostly made of wood
• Basically created a steel axe
• created in 1837
• is important because it allows to break up prairie sod

Question 6

Mechanization of Agriculture

Answer 6

• Hay rake
• Steam Engines
• Sugar cane/sawmills (1838)
• Portable (1850s)
• Self-propelled (1880s)
• Gas tractor (1920s)
• Combines (1836s/1930s)

Question 7

Agricultural Change

Answer 7

• 1800
  > 80% of Americans involved in agriculture
  # Hand operation
• 1900
  > Mechanized
  > Land in cultivation increases significantly
  # doubles in 1850-1890 and triples by 1910
  # Yet percentage of American farming decreases