The grain

In the Gospels, J esus describes God’s kingdom in terms of a grain field. “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the land. Of its own accord the land produces first the blade, then the ear, then the ripe grain in the ear. And when the crop is ready, he loses no time. He starts to reap because the harvest has come.” (Mark: 4, 26-29).

This picture of grain growing in ancient Palestine was really quite similar to that found at home nineteen centuries later in the years covered here. Our next-door neighbor used to sow the grain by hand for his small acreage, usually from a bucket or basket suspended from the shoulder. He prided himself in having a measured stride and graceful swing. Dad occasionally sowed grain this way too, but only in small corners of land too awkward for machinery to navigate. However, for the general run of planting grain we were blessed in having a drill seeder, owned in partnership with two neighbors and pulled neatly by a team of horses. Two flat, hinged doors at the top opened to accommodate a generous supply of bagged grain which fed its way down a series of thirteen flexible pipes to ground level. There, as the machine was engaged, the grain was transferred to the earth in measured fashion and covered by the action of thirteen disc wheels, each spring loaded to allow for uneven ground. A smaller box dropped the hay seed in a more scattered or broadcast manner, the tiny seed being immediately covered by short, individual chains dragging the soft earth behind the discs. The drill seeder was a simple but majestic machine that