403 Center Street Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
In the September-October issue, Mr. J. F. Percival of Spokane,
Washington, gave a very comprehensive history of the grain binder,
to which I would like to add a few facts.
Cyrus H. McCormick invented the first successful reaper in July,
1831, which was later developed into the modern grain binder. The
and consisted of the McCormick and Deering Companies. They soon
started buying up the smaller companies namely Milwaukee; Osborne;
and several others. I remember that William Howard Taft was then
president and he directed his Attorney General to take action on
what he called a monopoly by the Harvester Company. The government
demanded that the company dispose of all except McCormick and
Deering, which they did, selling Milwaukee to Moline Plow Co.;
Osborne to Emerson Brantingham Co., and the smaller ones to various
other firms. Thus the International Harvester Co., stands today the
largest manufacturer, and if I remember correctly, made and sold
23% of all farm equipment in this country in 1954.
My father bought a McCormick grain binder in 1904 and asked the
dealer why it was a right hand cut. He replied that McCormick made
right hand cuts for foreign trade and by mistake some got shipped
out and sold for domestic use. That binder was used until 1950 and
was still in good shape but we were compelled to start combining,
as practically all the neighbors were doing so. I would rather cut
and thresh as the grain and straw were in much better condition by
this method of harvesting. That is the reason I enjoy your magazine
as it brings back fond memories of the past.
The knotter used on grain binders was invented in Walworth
County, Wisconsin, by a man named Applebee and was bought and first
used by the McCormick Harvester Co., and later used on all other
makes. After his death a monument was erected to the memory of the
inventor. It still stands and can be seen from highway 12 on his
former farm midway between Elkhorn and Whitewater, Wisconsin.
My favorite threshing outfit was the Advance and wish you could
publish a history of that company like you did a while back about
Avery. The original side-mounted Advance engine before it merged
with Rumely was an easy steamer and had ample power for its rating.
I liked the sharp exhaust and you could hear it for two miles when
pulling hard threshing of filling silo.
Would you permit the editor to give his version of the McCormick
Right Hand Cut binder? McCormick very definitely promoted the right
hand cut binder. Here is one reason All the pictures of binders we
have seen in catalogs are being pulled by two horses. Everybody
knew that was just advertising. It took five head of horses to pull
a binder all day long. To drive the horses one man rode the lead
horse, which was just ahead of the cutter bar riding the lead
horse. In case of scared horses or a run away the driver was often
thrown from the horse and fell into the cutter bar and was badly
mangled or killed. With the right hand binder the driver was to the
outside and the danger was lessened. However, it was harder to
drive the team in a right hand cut and keep the binder cutting full
and not over full.
Most of the horses that pulled a binder for half a day were not
interested in running off or even getting scared So the left hand
binder won the day. Even with McCormick.
