Bringing in the harvest yesterday’s way
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Version 0 of 1. Little knots of men watched with critical eyes as an elderly combine harvester wheezed and rattled its way along the field of barley. One man bent down to pick a few seeds from among the straw and rub them between thumb and forefinger. He reckoned they needed a couple more days of warm sun. The harvester’s driver, in the open cab, had to work hard with hand and eye to steer the machine and at the same time operate its various levers. It was strenuous work. Watching him, the man next to me commented on how harvesting today was done by contractors with giant shiny machines operated from inside comfortable, covered cabs. And he knew how their drivers worked: “Just climb in and press a button … give ’em a shovel and they’d go weak at the knees … wouldn’t know what to do…” Close by, there was an Albion No 5 Binder, which looked well cared for, if past its prime. There was a sheaf, bound at the waist, leaning up against it. As with most of the machinery on view here at the annual Yesterday’s Farming show, its natural element would have been a landscape of homely shapes – sheaves, stooks, handmade hayricks – not the ranks of geometrically accurate cubes, cylinders and black plastic parcels that are delivered by modern machines. Another bystander, with an affectionate glance at the Albion, explained how it worked, and reminisced about his days as a lad in Sussex during the second world war. Massey Ferguson tractors had arrived from the US as part of the Lend-Lease programme, and he and his friends learned about them from an Italian prisoner of war – a former mechanic for Alfa Romeo – assigned to farm work. Over the hedge, at the ploughing contest, tractors of all ages and teams of horses, some with young, expert drivers, were at their work. Twitter: @GdnCountryDiary |