My grandfathers (maternal and paternal), whose land we farm, would be aghast at learning that the corn yield in one of our fields was over 200 bushels per acre in 2008.
A few acres even made as high as 250 bushels! My ancestors drove their workhorses and did cornhusking by hand for a yield of 40 to 50 bushels an acre on this very same ground. Our season of excess rain played a part in the excellent crop.
Jane and I read our books in the pick-up trucks, while Richard and Nelson, my cousin and the farmer who does the row crops, went to check a small section which suffered from chemical drift from the crop-duster spraying a neighbor's field. Richard climbed the steep ladder and joined Nelson in the eye of the great green monster whose teeth gobble up ten rows of corn on each circuit.
Indian summer and a late frost bless us with an abundant crop. A covey of quail has moved into the area carefully prepared to increase their kind. In a world of bad news and insecurities, our corn field is a gift of God's grace.
