[ILLUSTRATIONS]
| Page | |
| Portrait of Cyrus Hall McCormick | [Frontispiece] |
| Old Blacksmith Shop on Walnut Grove Farm, Virginia | [14] |
| The Old McCormick Homestead, Walnut Grove Farm, Rockbridge County, Virginia | [18] |
| Portrait of Robert McCormick | [22] |
| Portrait of Mrs. Mary Ann Hall McCormick | [24] |
| New Providence Church, Rockbridge County, Virginia | [28] |
| Facsimiles from Manuscript by Mr. McCormick, Giving his Own Account of the Origin of the Reaper | [30] |
| First Practical Reaping Machine | [34] |
| The Field on which the First McCormick Reaper was Tried, Walnut Grove Farm, Virginia | [38] |
| Interior of Blacksmith Shop in which C. H. McCormick Built his First Reaper | [42] |
| Reaping with Crude Knives in India | [50] |
| Reaping with Sickles in Algeria | [56] |
| Reaping with Cradles in Illinois | [60] |
| An Early Advertisement for McCormick's Patent Virginia Reaper | [64] |
| The McCormick Reaper of 1847, on which Seats were Placed for the Driver and the Raker | [70] |
| Portrait of Cyrus Hall McCormick, 1839 | [76] |
| Panoramic View Showing the McCormick Reaper Works before the Chicago Fire of 1871, on Chicago River, East of Rush Street Bridge | [82] |
| Men of Progress | [96] |
| The First McCormick Self-Rake Reaping Machine | [112] |
| Portrait of Cyrus Hall McCormick, 1858 | [120] |
| Portrait of Cyrus Hall McCormick, 1867 | [136] |
| McCormick Reaper Cutting on a Side Hill in Pennsylvania | [144] |
| Reaper Drawn by Oxen in Algeria | [150] |
| The Reaper in Heavy Grain | [166] |
| Harvesting near Spokane, Washington | [174] |
| Portrait of Cyrus Hall McCormick, 1883 | [182] |
| The Works of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company | [190] |
| McCormick Reaper in Use in Russia | [196] |
| Chart Showing Relative Distribution of Values by Producing Countries of 1908 of World's Production Of Five Principal Grains | [206] |
| Chart Showing Relative Values in 1908 of the World's Production of the Five Principal Grains | [206] |
| Mammoth Wheat-Field in South Dakota with Twenty Harvesters in Line | [214] |
| Harvesting in Roumania | [222] |
| Harvesting Heavy Grain, South America | [230] |
| Indians Reaping their Harvest, White Earth, Minnesota | [236] |
| A Harvest Scene Upon a Russian Estate | [242] |
[CYRUS HALL McCORMICK
HIS LIFE AND WORK]
[CHAPTER I]
THE WORLD'S NEED OF A REAPER
EITHER by a very strange coincidence, or as a phenomenon of the instinct of self-preservation, the year 1809, which was marked by famine and tragedy in almost every quarter of the globe, was also a most prolific birthyear for men of genius. Into this year came Poe, Blackie, and Tennyson, the poet laureates of America, Scotland, and England; Chopin and Mendelssohn, the apostles of sweeter music; Lincoln, who kept the United States united; Baron Haussemann, the beautifier of Paris; Proudhon, the prophet of communism; Lord Houghton, who did much in science, and Darwin, who did most; FitzGerald, who made known the literature of Persia; Bonar, who wrote hymns; Kinglake, who wrote histories; Holmes, who wrote sentiment and humor; Gladstone, who ennobled the politics of the British empire; and McCormick, who gave the world cheap bread, and whose life-story is now set before us in the following pages.