ved to be a
success from the beginning. Other lines were soon built, and the Morse
system, greatly improved, is still in use. The telegraph made it
possible to operate long lines of railroad, as all the trains could be
managed from one office so that they would not run into one another. It
also made it possible to communicate with people afar off and get an
answer in an hour or so. For both these reasons the telegraph was very
important and with the railroads did much to unite the people of the
different portions of the country.

[Illustration: THE FIRST MCCORMICK REAPER.]

[Sidenote: Problems of what growing.]

[Sidenote: The McCormick reaper, 1831. _McMaster_, 31-372.]

[Sidenote: Results of this invention.]

322. The McCormick Reaper.--Every great staple depends for its
production on some particular tool. For instance, cotton was of slight
importance until the invention of the cotton gin (p. 185) made it
possible cheaply to separate the seed from the fiber. The success of
wheat growing depended upon the ability quickly to harvest the crop.
Wheat must be allowed to stand until it is fully ripened. Then it must
be quickly reaped and stored away out of the reach of the rain and wet.
For a few weeks in each year there was a great demand for labor on the
wheat farms. And there was little labor to be had. Cyrus H. McCormick
solved this problem for the wheat growers by inventing a horse reaper.
The invention was made in 1831, but it was not until 1845 that the
reaper came into general use. By 1855 the use of the horse reaper was
adding every year fifty-five million dollars to the wealth of the
country. Each year its use moved the fringe of civilization fifty miles
farther west. Without harvesting machinery the rapid settlement of the
West would have been impossible. And had not the West been rapidly
settled by free whites, the whole history of the country between 1845
and 1865 would have been very different from what it has been. The
influence of the horse reaper on our political history, therefore, is as
important as the influence of the steam locomotive or of the cotton gin.

[Illustration: MODERN HARVESTER.]

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

CHAPTER 28

Sec.Sec. 293, 294.--Compare the condition of the United States in 1830 and
1800 as to (1) extent, (2) population, (3) interests and occupation of
the people. Illustrate these changes by maps, diagrams, or tables.

Sec.Sec. 295, 296.--_a_. How had the use of steamboat