65/5

McCormick Harvesting Machine Company (Manufacturer)

This is a horse drawn reaper, which is a farm implement to cut small grain crops. This reaper was manufactured by McCormick, Chicago, USA, dating from around 1890. This reaper was donated by A Brewer & Co. Ltd.

Museum label text - “Sail Reaper, 1890 // This is a machine for harvesting corn crops. When it was drawn through the crops by horses, the corn stalks were cut and swept by the sails off the back of the platform. Workers following behind bound the stalks into sheaves by hand. // Reaping machines like this were an important labour-saving step. By the end of the nineteenth century, many farms in England were using them. // This particular machine was imported from America where large machinery companies grew up to serve farming on the vast prairie lands. It was built by the McCormick company of Chicago which opened the first harvesting machinery factory in 1847. By 1875, it was producing 12,000 reapers a year, and 1,200 every day by 1900. // This machine was supplied by Brewer & Co., a firm of agricultural engineers and implement agents in Wilton, Dorset. They would buy in equipment from the big manufacturers and pass it on to local farmers. In this way, even the remote parts of England gained access to new agricultural technology. // Some time much later, the machine came back into the hands of Brewer & Co. and it was donated to the Museum in 1965.”, MERL ‘Handwritten accession’ form (Institute Of Agricultural History) – ‘Standard museum name: Reaper // Object number: 65/5 // Classification: HARVESTING – Cereals – cutter // Acquisition source: A Brewer & Co. Ltd. // Description: Reaper with wooden platform and for wooden sails. Painted red and yellow with ‘McCormick Daisy’ on the side of platform // Dimensions: width 3m (approx.) length 3m (approx.) height 2.3m (approx.) // Associated information: Made by McCormick, Chicago, USA, supplied by A Brewer & Co Ltd. Around 1890. “The main and graill wheels are fitted with roller bearings, consequently the machine is light in draft- it can be drawn by two horses” (McCormick cat.)'

Chicago