From the first pages of history we find that the reaping hook or sickle is the earliest tool for harvesting grain of which we have record. Pliny, in describing the practice of reaping wheat says, "One method is by means of reaping hooks, by which the straws are cut off in the middle with sickles and the heads detached by a pair of shears." Primitive sickles or reaping hooks made of flint or bronze are found among the remains left by the older nations. Pictures made in 1400 or 1500 B. C. upon the tombs at Thebes in Egypt, which are still legible, show slaves reaping with sickles. This crude tool, brought into use by ancient Egypt, remained almost stationary as to form and method of use until the middle of the last century.

The scythe, which is a development from the sickle, enables the operator to of the Scythe. It is Still Used in Some Places use both hands instead of one. The scythe is still a familiar tool on our farms, but it serves other purposes than that of being the sole means of harvesting grain.

The Cradle was Developed in America between 1776 and 1800 and is an Outgrowth.

The Cradle.

Gradually the blade of the scythe was made lighter, the handle was lengthened, and fingers added to collect the grain and carry it to the end of the stroke. With the cradle the cut swath could be laid down neatly for drying preparatory to being bound into bundles. This tool is distinctly an American development. The colonists, when they settled in this country, probably brought with them all the European types of sickles and scythes, and out of them evolved the cradle.

With the cradle in heavy grain an experienced man could cut about two acres a day, and another man could rake and bind it into sheaves, so that two men with the cradle could do the work of six or seven men with sickles.

The American cradle stands at the head of all hand tools devised for the harvesting of grain. When it was once perfected, it soon spread to all countries with very little change in form. Although it has been displaced almost entirely by the modern reaper, yet there are places in this country and abroad where conditions are such that reaping machines are impractical and where the cradle still has work to do.

Harvesting in the West.

Reproduced by permission of the Philadelphia Museums.

Steam Harvester and Thresher

The upper view shows side-hill harvesters drawn by teams of twenty-eight horses each. The machines cut the grain, and tie it up in bundles, which are dropped alongside. The machine in the lower view is self-propelling, cuts and threshes the grain, throwing out the straw, and places the grain in sacks ready for loading on the wagon.

Reproduced by permission of the Philadelphia Museums.