Traditional grain harvesting required separate cutting, binding, and threshing operations. The mechanical reaper, invented in 1831 by Cyrus McCormick, performed the cutting, but it required that laborers follow the machine in the field to bind the sheaves of grain. After binding, the grain had to be loaded onto wagons and delivered to stationary threshing machines, which separated the grain kernels from the rest of the plant. Binding had to be completed before the reaper could turn around to start a new row. The combine harvester combined the cutting and threshing procedures, eliminating the need to bind the stalks. Combine harvesters were developed almost at the same time as the mechanical reapers. The first patent on a combine was issued to Samuel Lane of Hallowell, Maine, in 1828. His machine was complex and no record exists of it having been actually used. The first successful combine, a horse-drawn machine...