McCormick Reaper Centennial Source Material -- 1954

              Different conditions prevailed in the North.  The principal farm products here were wheat, corn, hay, and livestock.  The cereal grains were raised chiefly in the Connecticut Valley, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and northern Missouri. Hay was a major crop in the New England states and was also cultivated to a lesser extent in the West. Northern farmers also had certain special crops, such as maple sugar, pro¬ duced largely in New York, Ohio, and Vermont, which added to their income. Dairying and truck gardening in the vicinity of New York City and Phila¬ delphia were beginning to attract attention, but they had not been exten¬ sively developed at this time. Horticulture had made some advance in New York and Pennsylvania. Agriculturists depended less on one main crop than in the South. Livestock, particularly in Pennsylvania and New York, was superior to that in the South.  The average quality, however, throughout the North was low. Horses were used for riding, carriage, and draft work. The principal draft animals were horses and oxen. Sheep had been improved by the Merino strain but were far inferior to present-day varieties.  The hogs were only a stage above the razorback, scientific breeding being yet in the future.
METHODS OF PRODUCTION—USE OF MACHINERY
In 1831 almost all of the operations of agriculture were performed by hand. Farm equipment largely included the implements of the early colonists, only slightly improved.  It was still mostly the product of the farm or the local blacksmith shop. Two outstanding improvements that had been made up to 1831 were the substitution of the cradle for the old-time sickle and the replacement about 1825 of the old wooden moldboard plow by the cast-iron plow, a change which was practically completed by 1840.  The new plow with one yoke of oxen would plow an acre and a half as against one acre with the old plow and its four-cattle team.  On many farms wooden cultivators with iron points replaced the hoe or the plow for corn cultiva¬ tion, and on some farms a wooden horse rake had been substituted for the old hand rake. Here and there one might find a fodder cutter, a hand seeder, a horse power, a thresher, or a small fanning mill.  In general, ox, horse, or mule power could be used only in plowing and tilling, cultivating, raking hay, and for transportation. All other work was still done by hand. Seed was usually broadcast and wheat was cut with the cradle or sickle. When threshed it was trodden out by horses or beaten out with a flail. Hay was cut with a scythe and corn commonly planted and harvested by hand.
PLOWING
Shallow plowing was the usual practice, and the furrows were rather uneven.  Cast-iron plows were in general use in 1831. Up to 1820 farmers continued to stick to their old-fashioned, clumsy bull plows. Between 1820 and 1830 they rather suddenly abandoned their wooden plows and adopted those of cast iron.  One type of early plow was made with a wooden moldboard roughly plated over with pieces of old saw blade, tin, or sheet iron.  It had a clumsy wrought iron share, and the handles were upright. Another type was the "bar share" plow, sometimes called the "bull plow." This plow had a flat bar forming the landside, with an immense piece of iron shaped like half a lance head, into the upper part of which a kind of coulter was fashioned.  It had a wooden moldboard fitted to the iron work in the most bungling manner.  Then there was the "shovel plow" in very general use in the middle and southern colonies. A rough hewn stick was used for a beam and into this another stick was framed, upon the end of which was a
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