Modern mechanized farming owes a great deal to Cyrus McCormick. The industrial seeds he planted (pun intended) grew into an international (another pun, wait, you’ll see) machinery manufacturing giant.
A young, 22-year-old Cyrus McCormick patented a grain reaper in 1834 but squandered his modest success, ending up in bankruptcy. However, Cyrus didn’t stay down long and soon paid off his debts and improved his reaper, along the way discovering larger farms in the Midwest that could take advantage of his invention.
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