The field was rough and hilly. Jolting and jerking from side to side, the reaping machine cut the grain in such irregular fashion that Farmer Ruff ordered Cyrus Hall McCormick to stop the horses and cease ruining his field of wheat. A bystander shouted to McCormick, “Pull down that fence; drive over into my field and try your machine there.” In that field, which was smooth and level, Cyrus Hall McCormick’s machine cut six acres of oats easily before the sun went down!

The new machine could do all the work of cutting grain. It had a divider that separated the grain to be cut from the grain left standing. It had fingers that caught and held the stalks while the knife blade moved back and forth, cutting with each stroke. In fact, it had all the main parts of the reaping machines we use on our farms today. The McCormick farm of the Shenandoah Valley had made history.