The Reaper’s Tale: How Cyrus McCormick Changed Gardening Forever
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
June 21, 1834
On this day, the American inventor and businessman, Cyrus McCormick, patented his remarkable reaping machine - a contraption that would forever change the toiling hands of agriculture and the very landscape of our countryside gardens.
One cannot help but marvel at how McCormick's thresher transformed cultivation as we know it, replacing the tedious manual cutting of crops with mechanical efficiency.
No wonder he earned the title The Father of Modern Agriculture - though between us, dear readers, any father who saves countless backs from breaking deserves more than mere titular recognition.
Imagine, if you will, fields of golden wheat falling in neat rows before this revolutionary device, while farmers (who previously would have spent weeks bent over with scythes) suddenly found themselves with time to contemplate the finer points of horticulture!
McCormick's company would later evolve into the International Harvester Company - a name that still reverberates through farming communities with the same reverence gardeners reserve for their favorite secateurs.
Our Mr. McCormick was, I'm told, a devout Christian - a fact that explains his generous philanthropic endeavors. Having amassed a considerable fortune from his reaper, he directed much of his wealth to charitable causes.
How refreshing to discover a man whose harvest extended beyond his fields and into the betterment of society!
"There's a special place in God's kingdom for businessmen who put their money where their mouth is."
Such wisdom from a man who knew that seeds must be planted if gardens are to flourish, whether those gardens be of wheat or of human potential.
In 1940, the American postal service saw fit to commemorate McCormick on a three-cent stamp - a rather modest tribute, one might observe, for a man who revolutionized farming. The original McCormick Farm is now owned by Virginia Tech, preserved as a monument to agricultural innovation.
One hopes they maintain the gardens with appropriate reverence.
Among McCormick's many contributions were his delightfully astute observations on commerce and promotion.
Consider this gem, which any garden society would do well to heed when advertising their annual show:
"Trying to do business without advertising is like winking at a pretty girl through a pair of green goggles. You may know what you are doing, but no one else does."
How true indeed!
Many a gardener has cultivated the most magnificent dahlia only to have it bloom unseen behind tall hedges.
Let us take McCormick's lesson to heart and ensure our horticultural triumphs receive the admiration they so richly deserve.
As we tend to our summer gardens today, let us spare a thought for Cyrus McCormick, whose invention gave farmers - and by extension, gardeners - more time to perfect their craft rather than merely survive it.
