1. Introduction
The history of mechanical harvesters and their importance are often overlooked in today’s society, not being as glamorous as other technological improvements in the engineering and horticultural/agricultural world it is non the less the most important. Sprouting from humble beginnings the concept of mechanically picking and processing a plant in an efficient manner is the same for all sections of the horticulture world. Be it a grape harvester on the West Coast or the well-known grain harvesters of the Midwest, all share the same purpose and several key attributes. This essay will discuss the history of both mechanical harvesters and before their existence, the processes used in them, and the differences of techniques used between incredibly different crops.
2. History of the Harvest
Since the Neolithic Revolution and into the pre-industrial revolution humans have grown and harvested many different crops using the same techniques for millennia. A very vivid painting of the process of harvesting is Peter Bruegel’s “The Harvesters” or often referred as “The Corn Harvest.” This painting not only shows how wheat was harvested using handheld scythes as the men along the field are doing, but also all the others involved. Be it the women in the back tying bundles of freshly cut wheat together or the man carrying a jug to those under a tree. The main notion that comes from this painting and ties into the history of harvesting in general is how labor intensive harvesting is and the population needed to work. As stated in Vickie Ziegler’s Pieter Breughel the Elder, Wheat Harvest,
“As we look at this picture, we can almost feel the late afternoon heat of a July day as we view the scene from above. The theme of the picture, the wheat harvest, is linked with the subject of rest from labor, as we look at several groups of peasants, some in the foreground, others stationed at different points in the painting” (Ziegler, pg 1).
This process of community involvement and the sheer amount of labor needed went on for millennia in the mainly agrarian societies of the world where entire villages were based on farming the land. The cycle of cultivating and sowing the ground, then harvesting at the end of the growing season, and this idea of labor intensive work season after season is what led to the development of mechanical harvesters.
3A. The First Mechanical Harvester
The most famous of the first harvesters, but more appropriately named “reaper” is Cyrus McCormick’s mechanical reaper. Pulled by horses and driven by a wheel the crude looking contraption echoes the beginning of the industrial revolution. The clumsy looking implement would pull wheat in using a reel on the top and a cutting bar on the bottom laid the tracks for all future harvesters by proving the complex task of pulling a flexible plant and cutting it could be performed. This in turn took a field the size of Peter Breughel’s “The Harvesters” that required a village of workers and limited that labor required to someone driving the horse and another collecting the wheat off the side while later models starting to process grain directly from the reaper (McNamara, ThoughtCo,2018). As with this Robert McNamara in his McCormick Reaper article explains the increase in efficiency through reduced manpower as it pertains to a pivotal moment in United States History,
“It has been noted that McCormick's farming machines may have had an impact on the Civil War, as they were more common in the North. And that meant farmhands going off to war had less impact on grain production. In the South, where hand tools were more common, the loss of farm hands to the military had much more impact.” (McNamara, ThoughtCo,2018)
3B. The First Combine
All the while McCormick designed his reaper the first true “combine” was taking shape, two years after McCormick patented his now famous design a lesser known inventor by the name of Hiram Moore designed his own harvester (Hill, pg 263, 1952). More impressive than McCormick’s reaper Moore’s mechanical harvester was the first true “combine” by integrating the process of reaping and threshing into one process (Hill, pg 263,1952). Essentially birthing the idea of the modern combine.
4. True Mechanical Harvesters
After the second world war and with the introduction of tractors mechanical harvesters became larger in size and power, moving leaps and bounds finally making the transition to self-propelled harvesters. Additionally, with the new technology involved in came the demand for greater efficiency, according to Popular Mechanics of 1949; “One man on a self-propelled combine and one man in a truck to pick up the wheat and haul it to storage comprise a harvest crew that handles as many acres today as 12 to 15 men could handle in the ‘20’s” (Stimson, pg 91,1949).
This concept of making harvest more efficient year after year beckons back to the invention of the scythe in an attempt to increase the amount of work done in the fastest time possible. It shows itself across all of horticulture in different techniques due to different species of plants but the idea of large complex machinery collecting the material, processing it, and discharging it persist. This can be seen from tomato harvesters, to grape pickers, and the grain giants of the Midwest.