At that time almost everyone in the United States lived on a farm, and a great many of those farms were in the valleys along the rivers and streams that flowed to the sea. In those days there were only a few roads in the entire country, and those roads were so narrow, so Tough and so full of tree stumps and deep mud-holes that (people would not use them if they could possibly travel by water. Everyone tried to live near a river or stream, Ion which boats could be used to carry the corn, wheat, flax, and wool down to the market towns on the coast, where they could be traded for the salt, iron, tea, tools, and other things that were needed.
当时，几乎所有的美国人都住在农场里，其中很多农场都位于流向大海的河流和小溪旁的山谷里2kRVO~.LxCoszBq,u。那时候全国只有几条路，路又窄又硬，到处都是树桩和深深的泥坑，如果有选择的话，人们是不会走水路的pRR&DnhuGh。每个人都试图住在河流或小溪附近，用这些船来运送玉米、小麦、亚麻和羊毛到沿海的集镇，在那里可以用来交换盐、铁、茶、工具和其他需要的东西BtcMC_)aCf5。

Great-grandfather McCormick had lived on a farm in Pennsylvania. On this farm he plowed and harvested the grain with the farm tools he had brought with him from his home in Europe. In those early days there were no machines such as we have today to help with the farm work; in fact, farmers were just beginning to discover new ways of making hand tools which could do more work than the old tools their forefathers had used.
曾祖父麦考密克曾住在宾夕法尼亚州的一个农场里XI#]ti_wReZi*g@%(Cru。在这个农场里，他用从欧洲老家带来的农具犁地收割谷物u]X6*GSScJGn.g^2xq)。在早期，没有像我们今天这样的机器来帮助我们干农活；事实上，农民们刚刚开始发现制作手工工具的新方法，这些工具比他们祖先使用的旧工具能做更多的工作][@Svq4hNJh。