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7a.
Corn Husker and Shredder, 1885
McCormick's Corn Husker and Shredder made easy work of the once long and tedious task of harvesting ears of corn and shredding the stalks into animal feed and bedding. The new machine brought an end to one of the old farm community's social events, the husking bee, in which neighbors and kinfolk would gather at each other's farms to share in the work of husking corn. |
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| 7b.
Drop Reaper, c.1860
The reaper was a horse drawn machine which replaced the prolonged physical labor of harvesting wheat and other grains by use of the scythe or grain cradle. The reaper's sickle-bar mower cut the grain close to the ground as wooden rotating arms collected the cut grain and swept it to the side, depositing it into neat bundles ready for hand tying. Further improvements produced the binder, which in addition to doing all of the work of the reaper also tied the sheaves into bundles. |
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