Cyrus McCormick - Friend to Farmers

15 Pages·2007·8.922 MB·English

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Friend to Farmers
by Jordan Maxwell
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ISBN 10: 0-15-351427-2
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Cyrus McCormick invented a machine
called a reaper. Cyrus’s reaper made it
possible for farmers to cut and collect their
crops faster than ever before. His reaper is
still praised today.
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Here farmers are cutting the grain crop by hand.
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Cyrus’s father had tried to build a
machine pulled by horses to cut grain. He
could never make it work properly. Cyrus
decided to make his own machine, and he
used his father’s work as a starting point.
When Cyrus was young, farmers cut
grain crops, such as wheat, by hand. They
used a tool that looked like a big, curved
knife. Harvesting was extremely difficult.
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In 1831, Cyrus made a reaper that
cut grain crops. The reaper also removed
the hard outer shells of the grain. Cyrus’s
machine could cut the grain crop much
faster than a person.
This is Cyrus McCormick’s grain reaper.
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Farmers came to see Cyrus’s reaper,
but they did not believe it would work.
They thought it looked like a wheelbarrow,
a carriage, and a flying machine! The
farmers laughed at it and then returned
home and kept using their old tools.
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Cyrus did not give up, though. For
the next ten years, he did experiments to
improve his reaper. He even added a blade
that cut grain in wet weather.
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SSuucccceessss!!
In 1843, an inventor of another reaper
challenged Cyrus to see whose machine
would cut more grain. Luckily, it rained on
the day of the contest. The other reaper
jammed up, but Cyrus’s machine kept
working. That year, Cyrus sold twenty-nine
reapers. He was on his way.
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