question_answer

What role was played by the mechanical reaper in the harvest?

Answer:

(i) Once the crop had ripened, it had to be harvested. Before the 1830s, the grain used to be harvested with a cradle or sickle.

(ii) At harvest time, hundreds of men and women could be seen in the fields cutting the crop.

(iii) In 1831, Cyrus McCormick invented the first mechanical reaper which could cut in one day as much as five men could cut with cradles and 16 men with sickles.

(iv) By the early 20th century most farmers were using combined harvesters to cut the crop.

(v) With one of these machines, 500 acres of wheat could be harvested in two weeks.