Ferguson Combine, August 1940

It took hundreds of years to perfect machinery that could combine the three major steps of harvesting grain: reaping, or cutting the crop; threshing to loosen the grain from the chaff; and disposing of the straw while retaining the grain. Unwieldy "combines" drawn by draft animals or tractors eventually gave way to more compact, self-propelled harvesters, like this one, beginning in the 1930s.