About 1860, reaping machines appeared. Early reapers broke down frequently but after a time, improvements made them very popular. One objection to them on the labourer's part was that they reduced the necessary number of workers. Threshing and winnowing machines also became more common. By 1851, steam engines were used to supply power instead of the horse or water power.
Gradually, more mechanical devices were added to farmers equipment; fewer workers were needed and young people drifted to the towns to seek work.

Read what the arist wrote about these figures.

.'Next to these on the shaded bank, are different characters out of work, haymakers in quest of employment; a stoic from the Emerald Island, with hay stuffed in his hat to keep the draught out, and need for his stoicism just at present, being short of baccy - a young shoeless Irishman, with his wife feeding their first-born with cold-pap - an old sailor turned haymaker, and two young peasants in search of harvest work, reduced in strength, perhaps by fever - possibly by famine.'