The mechanical reaper, developed by Cyrus McCormick, had what effect on harvesting practices?

• A. It replaced scythes as the preferred method of cutting crops for harvest.
• B. It increased manual labor to harvest more crops.
• C. It decreased crop yields due to mechanical failures.
• D. It had little impact on harvest efficiency.

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that the mechanical reaper dramatically boosted harvest efficiency. By mechanizing the cutting process, a single worker could harvest far more grain in a day than with a scythe, reducing the labor and time required per acre. This made it feasible to work larger fields and helped spur the expansion of farming across broader areas, especially in the Midwest and Great Plains. Because of these gains, the reaper largely became the preferred tool for cutting crops at harvest, replacing the older hand-cutting method on many farms. The other choices don’t fit the impact it had: it did not increase manual labor, it did not generally cause yields to drop due to failures, and it did have a substantial effect on harvest efficiency.