The McCormick establishment contributed to making Chicago a center of manufacturing agricultural equipment in the United States. Chicago offered several advantages: transportation was good and getting better with the construction of the railroads, the mid-west had become the major grain-producing states by 1860, and the larger and more level fields of the mid-west could utilize the machine better. In 1848, McCormick moved to Chicago and built a factory to manufacture reapers and other agriculture implements. During this initial period, most of the reapers in use were confined to the Eastern states. He constructed his first prototype reaper in the summer of 1831 and spent the next decade perfecting the machine.ĭuring the same time, other inventors were also at work, especially Obed Hussey who invented similar equipment and was McCormick’s first serious competition. 15, 1809, in Virginia.Īs a youth, he collaborated with his father in the construction of a hemp-break and a plow designed for the plowing of hills. McCormick is generally credited with the invention of the first reaper containing those essential elements which are still apparent in today’s combine. The reaper went far toward overcoming this bottleneck in production. But, with the harvest period short and farm labor scarce, farmers were unable to produce as much as they wished. The two factors which contributed most to the growing importance of wheat and commercial agriculture, in general, were the development of a nationwide transportation system and the growth of urban cities.Īs the domestic economy grew, stimulated by the immigration of a large number of foreigners after the 1840s, the demand for wheat and other grains increased proportionately. Its importance was due largely to the growth of the domestic economy rather than to the entrance of American grain and flour into European markets. Wheat during the antebellum period was the most important cash crop in the Northern agricultural economy, and by 1860 it was the most important cash crop in the United States. ![]() In 1839, the old northwest produced 31% of the nation’s crop in 1849, 37% and in 1859, 46%. In the 1830s, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia were major wheat producing states, but the center of the wheat-growing area moved steadily westward. Within nine years this figure had doubled and by the Civil War (1861-1865), it exceeded 170 million bushels. In the 1830s, the total wheat crop in the United States amounted to approximately 40 million bushels. Among these skilled creators was Cyrus H. The patents they obtained in Washington soared in numbers, averaging 646 per annum in the 1840s. These American inventors were more productive than inventors in Europe. Many Americans, who look back from the 20th and 21st centuries to praise the gifted poets and distinguished novelists of the fourth and fifth decades of the 19th century, have failed to see the mechanical geniuses of those 20 years.
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