This image from Benjamin Butterworth’s The Growth of Industrial Art, depicts reaping grain during the colonial period. Reaping had to be done by hand, using a scythe or hay knife to cut the grain. Notice that the whole family helps with the field work.

Reaping – Eighteenth Century
Author: Sackett & Wilhelms Litho. Co.
Date: 1892
Medium: Print
Bibliographic Information:
Benjamin Butterworth (ed.), The Growth of Industrial Art, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1892, 15.
Collections Number: F-218.59