On February 15, 1809, Cyrus H. McCormick was born at "Walnut Grove," his father's farm in Virginia.

While he was not born to poverty, since his father was the possessor of eighteen hundred acres of land, he was taught to work hard as soon as he was able 5 to go to the fields. As a boy he was accustomed to be up at five in the morning, in summer at an even earlier hour, and his day's work lasted until darkness drove him from his tasks. He was taught to go barefoot even in severe weather, not because this was necessary, but that 10 he might become toughened by exposure.

He had the advantage of a brief period of study at the school near his home. It is related by one who has written of his life that he one day surprised the teacher by taking to school a wooden globe, mounted so as prop- 15 erly to illustrate the earth's movements, with continents and seas carefully marked-his own handiwork. To his mother he owed training which supplemented the meager work of the schoolroom. But she was not content to teach him only secular things; from her he learned to read 20 from the Bible and to sing the hymns which were his comfort to the day of his death. With his parents he was a regular attendant at church. Thus habits were early formed that influenced his whole life.

The home farm was far from markets, so it was neces- 25 sary for his father to take care of his own tools in his

own blacksmith shop. Moreover, the farm boasted a gristmill, a sawmill, and a smelting furnace. Brought up in such surroundings, it is not strange that young Cyrus soon developed a fondness for handling tools. But it was 5 evident that he did not propose to confine his efforts to the performance of set tasks. His father had for years been an inventor, having built a thresher, a hemp-breaker, and a crude mechanical reaper. Inheriting the talent for invention, Cyrus experimented on his own account. At 10 fifteen he made for himself a harvesting cradle of such improved design that he was able to work on even terms with the best hand on the farm. A few years later he planned and built a hillside plow, which threw alternate furrows to right and left, and a self-sharpening plow, 15 which was so successful that it is thought it might have

been manufactured profitably but for the fact that his attention was occupied at this time by another far more important invention.

The year he was born his father began to build a 20 reaping machine which he hoped would revolutionize the world's harvesting methods. For a number of years the work was continued. Thus it happened that one of the earliest memories of the boy Cyrus was the talk about the mysterious reaper. He saw the curious machine grow 25 under his father's hands, and he must have seen the trial of the completed implement when he was seven years old.

To Mr. McCormick's disappointment the reaper was a failure. It would cut the wheat when the grain was in perfect condition, but was useless if the grain was the least 30 bit matted or beaten down by wind or rain. Discouraged, the inventor left the machine to rust.

Cyrus could not keep away from the discarded reaper. His father's dream took possession of him. Why couldn't

he show the American farmer how to reap grain with horses? His father, noting his purpose, urged him to give up all thought of spending time on the problem which had already cost so much. But the boy was not to be turned from his purpose. He had a vision of what a reaper 5 would mean to the world; already he saw the weak points in his father's work and thought of ways to remedy them. So he said to himself, "I will!" Then, for weeks and months and years he continued his experiments, refusing to be daunted by obstacles, encouraging himself always 10 with the dream of the triumph he was sure would come. Already the marvelous power of will for which he became famous among those who knew him was showing itself.

He did not know that already several inventors had 15 tried to solve the same problem, and it was just as well; his ideas were more absolutely original than perhaps they would have been if he had read of the work of others. Discarding the unsuccessful work of his father, he began at the beginning and finally, after years of experimenting, 20 completed his machine. It was a strange-looking affair, with its wooden cogwheels and its rough castings and forgings, all his own handiwork, but in it were embodied the essential principles of the reaper as it is today. Improvements have been made, but the plans worked out 25 over seventy years ago by the Virginia farm boy, who had never seen a city or a railroad, may be traced in the machine used today in the world's harvest fields.

By this time the interest of his parents in the work was very keen. The father often worked at the shop with 30 Cyrus until late at night. Neighbors laughed at the crazy ideas of the father and son, but they went on unheeding. When the reaper was tested in the home fields the mother