Advertising, chiefly by exhibitions and contests at fairs and other public gatherings, was another item of his programme.

All would have failed, of course, if he had not built good machines, but he did build good machines, and was not daunted by the Government's refusal in 1848 to renew his original patent.

He decided to make profits as a manufacturer rather than accept royalties as an inventor.
McCormick had many competitors, and some of them were in the field with improved devices ahead of him, but he always held his own, either by buying up the patent for a real improvement, or else by requiring his staff to invent something to do the same work.

Numerous new devices to improve the harvester were patented, but the most important was an automatic attachment to bind the sheaves with wire.

This was patented in 1872, and McCormick soon made it his own.