Driving the back roads of LaGrange County Indiana recently, I came upon a field of standing wheat shocks which were harvested in the labor intensive ancient way. The ripe golden wheat is first cut using cast iron farm implements drawn by a team of sturdy draft horses driven by the farmer. In this particular field the crop was raked into small bundles, hand tied with green twine, and then the small bundles stacked into the larger shocks shown in this photo. You can see a closeup of the individually tied bundles in the previous post. The raking, tying, and stacking is often the work of the women and children. The women work in a long polyester dress, apron, and bonnet. This is only a portion of the field.
The beauty of the scene is breathtaking.
And so is the work behind it.
