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88-442: Most modern mechanical reapers cut grass ; most also gather it, either by windrowing or picking it up. Modern machines that not only cut and gather the grass but also thresh its seeds (the grain ), winnow the grain, and deliver it to a truck or wagon, called combine harvesters or simply combines, which are the engineering descendants of earlier reapers. Hay is harvested somewhat differently from grain; in modern haymaking ,

176-499: A sod -forming perennial grass used in agriculture is Thinopyrum intermedium . Grasses are used as raw material for a multitude of purposes, including construction and in the composition of building materials such as cob , for insulation, in the manufacture of paper and board such as oriented structural straw board . Grass fiber can be used for making paper , biofuel production, nonwoven fabrics, and as replacement for glass fibers used in reinforced plastics. Bamboo scaffolding

264-623: A North Carolina match in 1854. That year Hussey also won a bronze medal at the New York Crystal Palace and a premium at the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society. In 1855, Hussey's factory in Baltimore produced 521 reaping machines, its maximum annual output, up from 385 in 1854. In the following years, however, his output declined, with annual totals of 163, 95, 19, 10, and 24, respectively, for

352-430: A crucial original integration of enough aspects to make a successful whole, and benefited from the influence of more than two decades of work by his father, as well as the aid of Jo Anderson, a slave held by his family. After the first reapers were developed and patented, other slightly different reapers were distributed by several manufacturers throughout the world. The Champion (Combined) Reapers and Mowers , produced by

440-639: A failure of the rake. The English machine was also unsuccessful, but McCormick's reaper performed well enough to cut an estimated twenty acres a day. At a second trial on August 6, while Hussey was in France, Hussey's reaper again did not work well; McCormick, who was present for this trial, was awarded a Grand Council Medal. Hussey protested that the trials were unjust. He began demonstrating his machine in England and, with his personal supervision, it performed efficiently; his reputation revived. Another contest

528-687: A main feature of agricultural productivity . The 19th century saw several inventors in the United States claim innovation in mechanical reapers. The various designs competed with each other, and were the subject of several lawsuits. Obed Hussey in Ohio patented a reaper in 1833, the Hussey Reaper . Made in Baltimore, Maryland , Hussey's design was a major improvement in reaping efficiency. The new reaper only required two horses working in

616-551: A non-strenuous manner, a man to work the machine, and another person to drive. In addition, the Hussey Reaper left an even and clean surface after its use. The McCormick Reaper was designed by Robert McCormick in Walnut Grove , Virginia . However, Robert became frustrated when he was unable to perfect his new device. His son Cyrus asked for permission to try to complete his father's project. With permission granted,

704-584: A photosynthetic pathway, linked to specialized Kranz leaf anatomy , which allows for increased water use efficiency , rendering them better adapted to hot, arid environments. The C3 grasses are referred to as "cool-season" grasses, while the C4 plants are considered "warm-season" grasses. Although the C4 species are all in the PACMAD clade (see diagram below), it seems that various forms of C4 have arisen some twenty or more times, in various subfamilies or genera. In

792-416: A shower drenched the wheat. Hussey's machine could not cut the wet wheat, leaving McCormick the winner of this impromptu meet. Hussey's luck continued to work against him for the main competition on June 30. Because a bridge had been swept away by high water, Hussey was unable to get his better, larger machine to the contest field. Instead, Hussey put his lesser, smaller machine up against McCormick's and it

880-596: A smaller part of the vegetation in almost every other terrestrial habitat. Grass-dominated biomes are called grasslands. If only large, contiguous areas of grasslands are counted, these biomes cover 31% of the planet's land. Grasslands include pampas , steppes , and prairies . Grasses provide food to many grazing mammals, as well as to many species of butterflies and moths . Many types of animals eat grass as their main source of food, and are called graminivores – these include cattle , sheep , horses , rabbits and many invertebrates , such as grasshoppers and

968-440: A truly revolutionary machine emerge. Other factors in the gradual uptake of mechanized reaping included natural cultural conservatism among farmers (proven tradition versus new and unknown machinery); the poor state of many new farm fields, which were often littered with rocks, stumps, and areas of uneven soil, making the lifespan and operability of a reaping machine questionable; and some amount of fearful Luddism among farmers that

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1056-910: A variety that include grasses that are related to modern rice and bamboo . Grasses have adapted to conditions in lush rain forests , dry deserts , cold mountains and even intertidal habitats , and are currently the most widespread plant type; grass is a valuable source of food and energy for all sorts of wildlife. A cladogram shows subfamilies and approximate species numbers in brackets: Chloridoideae (1600) Danthonioideae (300) Micrairoideae (200) Arundinoideae (50) Panicoideae (3250) Aristidoideae (350) Oryzoideae (110) Bambusoideae – bamboos (1450) Pooideae (3850) Puelioideae (11) Pharoideae (13) Anomochlooideae (4) Before 2005, fossil findings indicated that grasses evolved around 55 million years ago. Finds of grass-like phytoliths in Cretaceous dinosaur coprolites from

1144-473: Is a grass used as a culinary herb for its citrus-like flavor and scent. Many species of grass are grown as pasture for foraging or as fodder for prescribed livestock feeds, particularly in the case of cattle , horses , and sheep . Such grasses may be cut and stored for later feeding, especially for the winter, in the form of bales of hay or straw , or in silos as silage . Straw (and sometimes hay) may also be used as bedding for animals. An example of

1232-470: Is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses . It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos , the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and pasture . The latter are commonly referred to collectively as grass . With around 780 genera and around 12,000 species, the Poaceae is the fifth-largest plant family , following

1320-570: Is able to withstand typhoon-force winds that would break steel scaffolding. Larger bamboos and Arundo donax have stout culms that can be used in a manner similar to timber, Arundo is used to make reeds for woodwind instruments , and bamboo is used for innumerable implements. Phragmites australis (common reed) is important for thatching and wall construction of homes in Africa. Grasses are used in water treatment systems, in wetland conservation and land reclamation , and used to lessen

1408-963: Is for piecing together historical landscapes and weather patterns, considering other factors such as genetic material amount might also affect pollen size. Despite these challenges, new techniques in Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and improved statistical methods are now helping to better identify these similar-looking pollen types. Grasses are the primary plants used in lawns, which themselves derive from grazed grasslands in Europe. They also provide an important means of erosion control (e.g., along roadsides), especially on sloping land. Grass lawns are an important covering of playing surfaces in many sports, including football (soccer) , American football , tennis , golf , cricket , softball and baseball . Obed Hussey Obed Hussey (1792–1860)

1496-422: Is later broken down and the sheaves threshed to separate the grain from the straw. Collecting spilt grain from the field after reaping is called gleaning , and is traditionally done either by hand, or by penning animals such as chickens or pigs onto the field. Hand reaping is now rarely done in industrialized countries, but is still the normal method where machines are unavailable or where access for them

1584-502: Is limited (such as on narrow terraces). The more or less skeletal figure of a reaper with a scythe – known as the "Grim Reaper" – is a common personification of death in many Western traditions and cultures. In this metaphor, death harvests the living, like a farmer harvests the crops. A mechanical reaper or reaping machine is a mechanical, semi-automated device that harvests crops. Mechanical reapers and their descendant machines have been an important part of mechanized agriculture and

1672-606: Is linked to crop improvement, since meiotic recombination is an important component of plant breeding . Unlike in animals, the specification of both male and female plant germlines occurs late in development during flowering. The transition from the sporophyte phase to the gametophyte state is initiated by meiotic entry. Grasses are, in human terms, perhaps the most economically important plant family. Their economic importance stems from several areas, including food production, industry, and lawns . They have been grown as food for domesticated animals for up to 6,000 years and

1760-454: The Aristida genus for example, one species ( A. longifolia ) is C3 but the approximately 300 other species are C4. As another example, the whole tribe of Andropogoneae , which includes maize , sorghum , sugar cane , " Job's tears ", and bluestem grasses , is C4. Around 46 percent of grass species are C4 plants. The name Poaceae was given by John Hendley Barnhart in 1895, based on

1848-720: The Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous approximately 113–100 million years ago, which were found to belong to primitive lineages within Poaceae, similar in position to the Anomochlooideae. These are currently the oldest known grass fossils. The relationships among the three subfamilies Bambusoideae, Oryzoideae and Pooideae in the BOP clade have been resolved: Bambusoideae and Pooideae are more closely related to each other than to Oryzoideae. This separation occurred within

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1936-508: The Americas ). Sugarcane is the major source of sugar production. Additional food uses of sugarcane include sprouted grain , shoots , and rhizomes , and in drink they include sugarcane juice and plant milk , as well as rum , beer , whisky , and vodka . Bamboo shoots are used in numerous Asian dishes and broths, and are available in supermarkets in various sliced forms, in both fresh, fermented and canned versions. Lemongrass

2024-556: The Asteraceae , Orchidaceae , Fabaceae and Rubiaceae . The Poaceae are the most economically important plant family, providing staple foods from domesticated cereal crops such as maize , wheat , rice , oats , barley , and millet for people and as feed for meat-producing animals . They provide, through direct human consumption, just over one-half (51%) of all dietary energy; rice provides 20%, wheat supplies 20%, maize (corn) 5.5%, and other grains 6%. Some members of

2112-458: The Cenozoic contributed to the spread of grasses. Without large grazers, fire-cleared areas are quickly colonized by grasses, and with enough rain, tree seedlings. Trees eventually outcompete most grasses. Trampling grazers kill seedling trees but not grasses. Sexual reproduction and meiosis have been studied in rice , maize , wheat and barley . Meiosis research in these crop species

2200-666: The Champion Interest group ( Champion Machine Company , later Warder, Bushnell & Glessner , absorbed in IHC 1902) in Springfield, Ohio in the second half of the 19th century, were highly successful in the 1880s in the United States. Springfield is still known as "The Champion City". Generally, reapers developed into the 1872 invented reaper-binder , which reaped the crop and bound it into sheaves. By 1896, 400,000 reaper-binders were estimated to be harvesting grain. This

2288-615: The International Exposition in Paris. This and the 1856 Agricultural Congress, also in Paris, provided opportunities to demonstrate Hussey's reaper in France. Hussey achieved a "gratifying measure of success," but was unable to win the top awards, which went to McCormick. In 1857, a Hussey machine made in Vienna was defeated by a McCormick machine in a field trial in heavy rye near Budapest. During this same period back in

2376-422: The ligule lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath. Flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in spikelets , each having one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes . The part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two (or sometimes fewer) bracts at

2464-455: The sheaves of grain with wire or twine . Hand reaping is done by various means, including plucking the ears of grains directly by hand, cutting the grain stalks with a sickle , cutting them with a scythe , or a scythe fitted with a grain cradle . Reaping is usually distinguished from mowing , which uses similar implements, but is the traditional term for cutting grass for hay, rather than reaping cereals . The stiffer, dryer straw of

2552-499: The 1847 patent and seeking damages and an injunction to prevent further sales of the McCormick reaper. On September 19, 1859, the court ruled in favor of Hussey, finding that Hussey was the first inventor of the combination of the open-slotted guard finger and scalloped cutter, awarding damages of $ 80,000, and ordering McCormick to pay licensing fees to Hussey. Also in 1859, Hussey sold his 1847 patent rights for $ 200,000. The buyer

2640-539: The McCormick Reaper was patented by his son Cyrus McCormick in 1834 as a horse-drawn farm implement to cut small grain crops. This McCormick reaper machine had several special elements: Cyrus McCormick claimed that his reaper was actually invented in 1831, giving him the true claim to the general design of the machine. Over the next few decades the Hussey and McCormick reapers would compete with each other in

2728-549: The Pacific Ocean, where he was among the crew who would row after the whales. It may have been during a whaling trip that he lost the sight of one eye. Whaling remained an occupation for Hussey into his thirties. From July 1820 to April 1823, he served on the crew of the whaleship Atlas on a voyage from Nantucket to the South Seas. During this voyage, off the coast of Chile late in the day on January 14, 1821, Hussey

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2816-562: The Poaceae are used as building materials ( bamboo , thatch , and straw ); others can provide a source of biofuel , primarily via the conversion of maize to ethanol . Grasses have stems that are hollow except at the nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks. The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath. The leaf grows from the base of the blade, an adaptation allowing it to cope with frequent grazing. Grasslands such as savannah and prairie where grasses are dominant are estimated to constitute 40.5% of

2904-730: The Scottish juries awarded prizes to their own. Hussey returned to England for several months in 1853 and was apparently satisfied with his success. By 1855, however, the McCormick reaper had been adapted to English conditions and English buyers had shifted toward McCormick's machine. Nevertheless, by the late 1850s, Hussey had manufacturers in the British Isles making a version of his machine. These Hussey machines, priced lower than McCormick's, gained increasing favor, especially in Scotland. In 1855, Hussey attended another world's fair,

2992-406: The United States, seventeen patents for harvesting machines had been granted before that of Hussey, the earliest in 1803; however, Hussey's was the first "really practical" reaping machine to be patented. As for McCormick, although he built and used a reaper in 1831, he did not patent it until 1834, about six months after Hussey's patent, nor had he sold reapers to others. Instead, after obtaining

3080-570: The United States, the rivalry between Hussey and McCormick had continued. Hussey won a contest with McCormick during the 1852 Ohio harvest, while trials in Geneva, New York were inconclusive. Hussey gained ground in Maryland when McCormick failed to appear for a planned contest there. In 1853, Hussey received two votes to McCormick's one in a Virginia trial, while another maker's machine received two votes as well. Hussey's machine also held its own in

3168-420: The acting commissioner of patents, declared that Hussey's improvements were the foundation of their success. It was ruled that the heirs of Obed Hussey would be monetarily compensated for his hard work and innovation by those who had made money from the reaper. It was also ruled that McCormick's reaper patent would be renewed for another seven years. Although the McCormick reaper was a revolutionary innovation for

3256-490: The application for renewal until near the end of the original term. He did so, but apparently not knowing that he was required to apply for a renewal at least thirty days before expiration of the patent, he waited until just ten or twelve days before the expiration date. Having missed the legal deadline for a renewal through the patent office, Hussey could get a renewal only through an appeal to Congress for an extension. Meanwhile, Hussey had secured patents for an improvement to

3344-442: The base, called glumes , followed by one or more florets. A floret consists of the flower surrounded by two bracts, one external—the lemma —and one internal—the palea . The flowers are usually hermaphroditic — maize being an important exception—and mainly anemophilous or wind-pollinated, although insects occasionally play a role. The perianth is reduced to two scales, called lodicules , that expand and contract to spread

3432-481: The beginning of the first "war of the reapers." The field of battle was to be a farm near Richmond, Virginia in the region of the lower James River. The contest was planned for June 30, 1843, but on June 27, Hussey learned that McCormick was operating his machine in the area, so Hussey brought his reaper to the same field and challenged McCormick to a competitive trial. With a small crowd of neighbors looking on, McCormick began cutting first. Before Hussey got started,

3520-450: The caterpillars of many brown butterflies . Grasses are also eaten by omnivorous or even occasionally by primarily carnivorous animals. Grasses dominate certain biomes , especially temperate grasslands , because many species are adapted to grazing and fire. Grasses are unusual in that the meristem is near the bottom of the plant; hence, grasses can quickly recover from cropping at the top. The evolution of large grazing animals in

3608-403: The cereal plants and the greener grasses for hay usually demand different blades on the machines. The reaped grain stalks are gathered into sheaves (bunches), tied with string or with a twist of straw. Several sheaves are then leant against each other with the ears off the ground to dry out, forming a stook . After drying, the sheaves are gathered from the field and stacked, being placed with

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3696-532: The darkness. Hussey kept journals detailing these experiences. By 1831, Hussey was at work on his reaping machine, spending at least part-time at an agricultural implements factory in Baltimore. However, the hilly landscape of Maryland made it an unsuitable location for a field trial, so when the machine was ready, Hussey took it to Ohio, where he had a supporter in Cincinnati who provided both financing and manufacturing facilities. Working in Cincinnati during

3784-543: The ears inwards, then covered with thatch or a tarpaulin ; this is called a stack or rick . In the British Isles a rick of sheaves is traditionally called a corn rick , to distinguish it from a hay rick ("corn" in British English retains its older sense of " grain " generally, not " maize "). Ricks are made in an area inaccessible to livestock, called a rick-yard or stack-yard . The corn-rick

3872-835: The erosional impact of urban storm water runoff. Pollen morphology, particularly in the Poaceae family, is key to figuring out their evolutionary relationships and how environments have changed over time . Grass pollen grains, however, often look the same, making it hard to use them for detailed climate or environmental reconstructions. Grass pollen has a single pore and can vary a lot in size, from about 20 to over 100 micrometers, and this size difference has been looked into for clues about past habitats, to tell apart domesticated grasses from wild ones, and to indicate various biological features like how they perform photosynthesis , their breeding systems, and genetic complexity. Yet, there's ongoing debate about how effective pollen size

3960-434: The expiration of his original patent and he sought an extension through the patent office. Hussey and others opposed this extension. Hussey took the position that he opposed McCormick's extension as a matter of self-defense, because McCormick had petitioned Congress against Hussey's extension. On March 29 of that year, the patent office denied McCormick's application for an extension. The denial of McCormick's extension by

4048-526: The field because the original patents of both Hussey and McCormick had expired; both men were then forced to compete with their own ideas. The first world's fair, an international exhibition of industrial arts known as the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations , was planned for London in 1851. Hussey and McCormick both sought to expand their markets by displaying their reapers at this event, held at

4136-469: The full list of Poaceae genera . The grass family is one of the most widely distributed and abundant groups of plants on Earth . Grasses are found on every continent, including Antarctica . The Antarctic hair grass, Deschampsia antarctica is one of only two plant species native to the western Antarctic Peninsula . Grasses are the dominant vegetation in many habitats, including grassland , salt-marsh , reedswamp and steppes . They also occur as

4224-478: The grains of grasses such as wheat , rice, maize (corn) and barley have been the most important human food crops . Grasses are also used in the manufacture of thatch , paper , fuel , clothing , insulation , timber for fencing , furniture , scaffolding and construction materials, floor matting , sports turf and baskets . Of all crops grown, 70% are grasses. Agricultural grasses grown for their edible seeds are called cereals or grains (although

4312-438: The harvesting of crops, it did not experience mainstream success and acceptance until at least 20 years after it was patented by Cyrus McCormick. This was because the McCormick reaper lacked a quality unique to Obed Hussey's reaper. Hussey's reaper used a sawlike cutter bar that cut stalks far more effectively than McCormick's. Only once Cyrus McCormick was able to acquire the rights to Hussey's cutter-bar mechanism (around 1850) did

4400-623: The home of the Hussey reaper. Also that year, his machine won praise from the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and performed successfully elsewhere. For the 1839 harvest, ten or twelve machines were made and it was introduced in Delaware. Hussey also received favorable press notices that year. For the 1840 harvest, Hussey made thirty-six machines with some gearing alterations, but, he said, "the credit of

4488-463: The land area of the Earth , excluding Greenland and Antarctica . Grasses are also an important part of the vegetation in many other habitats, including wetlands , forests and tundra . Though they are commonly called "grasses", groups such as the seagrasses , rushes and sedges fall outside this family. The rushes and sedges are related to the Poaceae, being members of the order Poales , but

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4576-513: The late 1840s, Hussey gained ground in the eastern seaboard states partly because McCormick's 1846 reapers suffered from poor workmanship in Virginia. Hussey sold 50 or 60 reapers in 1850, and they were well received from Pennsylvania south to North Carolina. Hussey's machine of 1850 cut grass well, while McCormick's did not. Thus, by 1850, the reaper of Obed Hussey "had proved its worth." By that year, however, many new competitors had entered

4664-453: The latest Cretaceous ( Maastrichtian ) aged Lameta Formation of India have pushed this date back to 66 million years ago. In 2011, fossils from the same deposit were found to belong to the modern rice tribe Oryzeae , suggesting substantial diversification of major lineages by this time. In 2018, a study described grass microfossils extracted from the teeth of the hadrosauroid dinosaur Equijubus normani from northern China, dating to

4752-624: The latter term, when used agriculturally, refers to both cereals and similar seeds of other plant species, such as buckwheat and legumes ). Three cereals—rice, wheat, and maize (corn)—provide more than half of all calories consumed by humans. Cereals constitute the major source of carbohydrates for humans and perhaps the major source of protein; these include rice (in southern and eastern Asia ), maize (in Central and South America ), and wheat and barley (in Europe , northern Asia and

4840-463: The leaves are attached. Grass leaves are nearly always alternate and distichous (in one plane), and have parallel veins. Each leaf is differentiated into a lower sheath hugging the stem and a blade with entire (i.e., smooth) margins. The leaf blades of many grasses are hardened with silica phytoliths , which discourage grazing animals; some, such as sword grass , are sharp enough to cut human skin. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs called

4928-469: The lemma and palea; these are generally interpreted to be modified sepals. The fruit of grasses is a caryopsis , in which the seed coat is fused to the fruit wall. A tiller is a leafy shoot other than the first shoot produced from the seed. Grass blades grow at the base of the blade and not from elongated stem tips. This low growth point evolved in response to grazing animals and allows grasses to be grazed or mown regularly without severe damage to

5016-588: The machine suffered a retrograde." He also introduced the machine in Virginia. His market declined for the next three years, selling only two in 1843. In 1841, Virginia planters gave the Hussey machine mixed reviews, though it continued to be viewed favorably in the Genesee Valley of New York state. The 1842 season brought increased competition from the Cyrus McCormick reaper and Hussey was able to sell only 10 machines, despite offering two models,

5104-439: The machine that cuts the grass is called a hay mower or, if integrated with a conditioner , a mower-conditioner. As a manual task , cutting of both grain and hay may be called reaping, involving scythes , sickles , and cradles , followed by differing downstream steps. Traditionally all such cutting could be called reaping, although a distinction between reaping of grain grasses and mowing of hay grasses has long existed; it

5192-470: The machine would take away jobs, most especially among hired manual labourers . Another strong competitor in the industry was the Manny Reaper by John Henry Manny and the companies that succeeded him. Even though McCormick has sometimes been simplistically credited as the [sole] "inventor" of the mechanical reaper , a more accurate statement is that he independently reinvented aspects of it, created

5280-486: The marketplace, despite being quite similar. By the 1850s, the original patents of both Hussey and McCormick had expired and many other manufacturers put similar machines on the market. In 1861, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a ruling on the invention of the polarizing reaper design. It was determined that the money made from reapers was in large part due to Obed Hussey. S. T. Shubert,

5368-496: The middle seaboard states, New York, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and probably in Ohio and Kentucky. However, during this period, Hussey focused on the eastern markets, where his machine was especially in use as a mower. In 1846, Hussey introduced his reapers in Champaign County, Ohio and arranged for local manufacture of his machines. Various testimonials from 1845 to 1850 report positive results for his reapers. In

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5456-459: The newly-constructed Crystal Palace , a nineteen-acre conservatory of iron and glass, beginning May 1. On July 24, a head-to-head trial of reapers by Hussey and McCormick, as well a third of English design, was held. Hussey and McCormick were both absent and Hussey's machine was operated by an agent who had never seen it work. When its cutter clogged, the operator did not know how to clear it, nor did he know how to adjust its platform, resulting in

5544-433: The patent office meant that both Hussey and McCormick could get extensions of their original reaper patents only through Congress. Hussey's case for renewal was in part that he had not received sufficient compensation from his invention; rather than earning profit from his 1833 patent, Hussey had spent the fourteen-year term of the patent working to perfect his invention "without any return for time and labor," leaving him "at

5632-899: The patent, McCormick turned his attention to other business matters, selling no reapers until at least 1839. As of 1834, McCormick's reaper was still marginal, while Hussey's machine was a viable reaper. Hussey gave successful demonstrations of his machine in 1834 in New York state and in 1835 in Missouri, New York state, and possibly also in Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana. In 1836, Hussey reapers achieved results in Maryland that enhanced Hussey's reputation. In 1837, he had some reapers manufactured in Maryland and up to six of them were sold there, while other Hussey machines were built in Cincinnati and marketed in Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri. In August 1838, Hussey moved to Baltimore and that city became

5720-400: The plant. Three general classifications of growth habit present in grasses: bunch-type (also called caespitose), stoloniferous , and rhizomatous . The success of the grasses lies in part in their morphology and growth processes and in part in their physiological diversity. There are both C3 and C4 grasses, referring to the photosynthetic pathway for carbon fixation. The C4 grasses have

5808-405: The prime of his life to perfecting his reaping machine. Although the Hussey reaper was ultimately surpassed in the marketplace by the reaping machines of Cyrus McCormick, Hussey was the first person to make, patent, and sell such a machine in the United States. His machine was first in that it was first to be patented and had been worked in at least eight states before McCormick's machine had left

5896-429: The reaping machine: "his famous open-back guard fingers." Patented on August 7, 1847, this improvement involved leaving openings at the back end of the slot in the guards for the escape of particles of straw or grass that might get in between the blades and guards. This served to prevent choking of the blades in the guards. Hussey saw his 1847 improvements as "perfecting" his reaper. In 1848, Cyrus McCormick also faced

5984-629: The relatively short time span of about 4 million years. According to Lester Charles King , the spread of grasses in the Late Cenozoic would have changed patterns of hillslope evolution favouring slopes that are convex upslope and concave downslope and lacking a free face were common. King argued that this was the result of more slowly acting surface wash caused by carpets of grass which in turn would have resulted in relatively more soil creep . There are about 12,000 grass species in about 771 genera that are classified into 12 subfamilies. See

6072-412: The seagrasses are members of the order Alismatales . However, all of them belong to the monocot group of plants. Grasses may be annual or perennial herbs , generally with the following characteristics (the image gallery can be used for reference): The stems of grasses, called culms , are usually cylindrical (more rarely flattened, but not 3-angled) and are hollow, plugged at the nodes , where

6160-472: The smaller of which was priced slightly below McCormick's. Nevertheless, Hussey's reaper "held first place" among all reapers in use prior to 1843. Early in 1843, Hussey wrote a letter to the editor of Southern Planter, published in March of that year, in which he noted the attention McCormick's reaper had been given and expressed the intention of entering his reaper into contests with McCormick's; this marked

6248-457: The task. The result was that he broke his sickle and rake. No winner was declared; nevertheless, the owner of the field concluded that Hussey's machine was better for use in heavy wheat. Hussey sold only two reapers following these contests, while McCormick sold twenty-nine. In 1844, Hussey sought to show that his machine could cut hemp in Kentucky, and in 1845, Hussey reapers were used in

6336-466: The tribe Poeae described in 1814 by Robert Brown , and the type genus Poa described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus . The term is derived from the Ancient Greek πόα (póa, "fodder") . Grasses include some of the most versatile plant life-forms . They became widespread toward the end of the Cretaceous period, and fossilized dinosaur dung ( coprolites ) have been found containing phytoliths of

6424-481: The valley of Virginia. Moreover, Hussey's cutting mechanism, the combination of a reciprocating knife and slotted guard fingers, became, with some further modifications, the standard one for use in harvesting machinery. Obed Hussey was born in 1792 to a Quaker family in Maine, but moved at an early age to the island of Nantucket . Little is known of his early life, but as a young man, he sailed on whaling ships to

6512-422: The very door of poverty." Bills that would have extended Hussey's patent were introduced in 1848, 1854, and 1856, but the matter ultimately was tabled. McCormick also was unable to win an extension through Congress. In April 1857, Hussey obtained a reissue of his 1847 patent covering an open-back guard finger in combination with a vibrating scallop-edged cutter. He then sued McCormick, claiming infringement of

6600-521: The winter of 1832-1833, Hussey rebuilt his reaping machine there, completing it in time for the harvest of 1833. On July 2, 1833, Hussey exhibited his machine before the Hamilton County Agricultural Society near Carthage, Ohio, where it performed successfully. Hussey patented his machine later that year, on December 31, 1833. In the spring of 1834, Mechanics' Magazine gave coverage to Hussey's reaper. That report

6688-576: The world," his business adversaries saw him as "a fiercely tenacious, one-eyed devil" who "must be watched with caution." In this context, at least, his modesty has been called a myth and his "common reputation for lack of aggressiveness" has been said to be "disproved by almost every move of his career." Nevertheless, observers have concluded that Hussey was not skilled in matters of business, citing his reluctance to incorporate into his machine any features he did not personally invent and his failure to make much money from his invention. Hussey's strength

6776-418: The years 1856 through 1860. Between 1848 and 1860, McCormick manufactured more than ten times as many reaping machines as did Hussey, and by 1857, Hussey was no longer a serious competitor in the harvest field. Hussey's 1833 patent, good for a term of fourteen years, was scheduled to expire at the end of 1847. In 1845, he contacted the patent commissioner about obtaining an extension, but was advised to delay

6864-567: Was "highly educated, cultured and refined; a philosopher as well as a writer of both poetry and prose, of more than ordinary ability." His writings included four journals chronicling whaling voyages and two manuscript volumes of poetry. In matters of religion, Hussey was a Quaker who maintained his affiliation throughout his life. Records show that he transferred his membership from Quaker meeting to Quaker meeting when he changed his residence. While in his personal life Hussey may have been "the picture of Quaker beneficence" and "without an enemy in

6952-406: Was a "syndicate of patent lawyers" who adapted the invention into a mowing-machine. In 1861, after Hussey's death, his heirs successfully obtained an extension of his 1847 patents. Various manufacturers paid royalties to the Hussey heirs during the following years. Admiring descriptions of Obed Hussey, "one of nature's noblemen," are readily available. It has been said that he: Moreover, he

7040-459: Was aboard a whaleboat pursuing a sperm whale when the whale stoved in the whaleboat. He and the other crew members were thrown into the sea, but managed to stay afloat by hanging onto the partially submerged wreckage of the boat. The Atlas was too far away to be aware of what had happened and darkness soon fell. The crew were rescued only when a search boat from the Atlas happened upon them despite

7128-458: Was an American inventor. His most notable invention was a reaping machine , patented in 1833, that was a rival of a similar machine, patented in 1834, produced by  Cyrus McCormick . Hussey also invented a steam plow, a machine for grinding out hooks and eyes, a mill for grinding corn and cobs, a husking machine, a machine for crushing sugar cane, a machine for making artificial ice, a candle-making machine, and other devices. However, he devoted

7216-463: Was as an inventor and in that regard he was called a "genius," albeit an "erratic" one. He worked incessantly at his inventions throughout his life. In 1856, Hussey married Eunice B. Starbuck, a 24-year-old who had also grown up on Nantucket. They had two daughters. The family resided in Baltimore. On 4 August 1860, a Saturday, Hussey, on a trip to visit friends and family in Boston and Portland,

7304-492: Was in turn replaced by the swather and eventually the combine harvester , which reaps and threshes in one operation. In Central European agriculture reapers were – together with reaper-binders – common machines until the mid-20th century. Poaceae Gramineae  Juss. Poaceae ( / p oʊ ˈ eɪ s i . iː , - s i aɪ / poh- AY -see-e(y)e ), also called Gramineae ( / ɡ r ə ˈ m ɪ n i . iː , - n i aɪ / grə- MIN -ee-e(y)e ),

7392-469: Was only after a decade of attempts at combined grain reaper/hay mower machines (1830s to 1840s) that designers of mechanical implements began resigning them to separate classes. Mechanical reapers substantially changed agriculture from their appearance in the 1830s until the 1860s through 1880s, when they evolved into related machines, often called by different names (self-raking reaper, harvester, reaper-binder , grain binder, binder), that collected and bound

7480-562: Was seen by Cyrus McCormick, who promptly wrote a letter to the editor claiming that he had invented and field-tested a reaping machine in 1831 and that use of the principles of the machine by others was an infringement of his rights. Thus began a fierce rivalry between Hussey and McCormick that would last more than a quarter of a century. There had been unsuccessful attempts by others to build reaping machines before Hussey and McCormick. These included thirty-three English and twenty-two American inventions, as well as two French and one German. In

7568-439: Was set for 25 and 27 September 1851. Hussey's machine performed better and Hussey gained considerable prestige. Later that season, Hussey exhibited before Prince Albert, who then ordered two machines. Also in 1851, a Hussey machine made in England reached Austria. Hussey again went to England in 1852 to promote his reaper. He had success in at least two contests early in the 1852 harvest, but when he took his reaper to Scotland,

7656-453: Was traveling by train from Boston to Portland, accompanied by his wife, their infant daughter, and a servant. As was the practice at the time, the train carried no water for passengers, but instead made stops where passengers could get off the train and get water. At such a stop in Exeter, New Hampshire, Hussey got off the train to retrieve some water for the child of a fellow passenger. While he

7744-402: Was unable to cut as much grain. McCormick was judged the winner, but under the circumstances, the jurors had reservations and Hussey protested the award. One of the jurors invited an additional match in his fields the following week. The fields included some areas with tangled wheat. McCormick refused to try his machine there, while Hussey, this time with his larger machine, put his reaper to

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