E-text prepared by Tom Roch and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by the Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA), Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University (http://chla.library.cornell.edu/) and Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 32702-h.htm or 32702-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/32702/pg32702-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32702/32702-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/romanceofreaper00cass or Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA), Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University. See http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;idno=2936480 THE ROMANCE OF THE REAPER [Illustration: A CHICAGO MOWER IN SIBERIA] THE ROMANCE OF THE REAPER by HERBERT N. CASSON Author of "The Romance of Steel." Illustrated from Photographs "And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together." --_Dean Swift._ New York Doubleday, Page & Company 1908 Copyright, 1907, 1908, by Everybody's Magazine Copyright, 1908, by Doubleday, Page & Company Published, May, 1908 All Rights Reserved, Including That of Translation into Foreign Languages, Including the Scandinavian TO THE FARMERS OF THE UNITED STATES WHOSE ENERGY AND PROGRESSIVENESS HAVE MADE THIS WONDER-STORY COME TRUE PREFACE This is the story of our most useful business. It is a medley of mechanics, millionaires, kings, inventors and farmers; and it is intended for the average man and woman, boy and girl. Although I have taken great pains to make this book accurate, I have written it in the fashion of romance, because it tells a story that every American ought to know. The fact is that the United States owes much more to the Reaper than it owes to the factory or the railroad or the Wall Street Stock Exchange. Without the magical grain machinery that gives us cheap bread, the whole new structure of our civilisation, with all its dazzling luxuries and refinements, would be withered by the blight of Famine. This may sound strange and sensational to those who have been bred in the cities, but it is true.