File:Marvels of the new West - a vivid portrayal of the stupendous marvels in the vast wonderland west of the Missouri River - comprising marvels of nature, marvels of race, marvels of enterprise, marvels (14578434599).jpg

Identifier: marvelsofnewwest1889thay (find matches)
Title: Marvels of the new West : a vivid portrayal of the stupendous marvels in the vast wonderland west of the Missouri River : comprising marvels of nature, marvels of race, marvels of enterprise, marvels of mining, marvels of stock-raising, and marvels of agriculture, graphically and truthfully described
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Thayer, William Makepeace, 1820-1898
Subjects:
Publisher: Norwich, Conn. : Henry Bill Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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ed that all this labor, thisimportant and money-making labor, is performed in the rainy seasonof California. It must also be remembered that the rainy season inCalifornia, as we have already explained, is not a season of contin-uous rains, as many have supposed. Sometimes it rains most of thetime for two or three days, but more generally the farmer can workin the field the whole season through and not lose more than four orfive days in the whole time. ■ Necessity is the mother of invention ; and so the wheat-raisersfound a way of harvesting their enormous crops. Our forefathersused the sickle, a very slow and unsatisfactory method of gatheringgrain. Less than a hundred years ago the cradle for cutting grainwas invented by a Scotchman, and this created a revolution in har-vesting. It facilitated the autumn work of the farmer to such adegree that he never dreamed there could be any improvement uponthat method. But even the cradle could not avail much on the MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 641
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642 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. vast wheat-fields of the New West. Think of Dalrymple cradHngthirty thousand acres of grain ! One hundred men could cradle butthree hundred acres per day at the most; and one hundred days,at this rate, would be required for harvesting. This would costmore than it comes to. Western farmers could not afford theexpense. It was absolutely necessary that some other method ofharvesting grain should be discovered, and it was, A machine forcutting, binding, and placing the bundles in an upright positionmet the needs of the hour. The problem of harvesting the largestfields of grain was solved by this invention. A romantic Western story was told about this machine lastseason. A young lady was intently watching its operation, when, in

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