Harry ‘Bubba’ Paul drives the John Deere and Steve Jones rides the 1930s era McCormick-Dering mechanical reaper while owner Tommy Wright looks on. The group was harvesting wheat from the field of Viola farmer Sam Bonner Jr.
‘For amber waves of grain,’ goes the line in ‘America the Beautiful.’ The phrase was inspired by the wheat fields of Kansas which the poem’s author, Katherine Lee Bates, rode through on a train trip out to Colorado Springs in 1893. But Bates could just as easily been inspired by taking a trip through Viola and riding past Warren County’s own amber waves of grain being cultivated on Sam Bonner’s farm. Those who happened by Bonner’s farm yesterday would have been transported close to 80 years back in time as Viola Valley Farmer’s Museum & Collectibles proprietor Tommy Wright supervised an old-time harvest with his 1930s era McCormick-Dering mechanical reaper, which cuts and binds the wheat into bundles. Wright will also be demonstrating an antique threshing machine downtown during the Bicentennial Celebration on July 5 using the wheat harvested off Bonner’s farm. Though the apparatus, invented by Cyrus Hall McCormick, was originally drawn with horses or mules, yesterday it was pulled with a shiny green John Deere tractor. ‘This is a fascinating piece of history here,’ said County Executive John Pelham. ‘It’s hard to believe how the harvesting of grain has changed over the years. And we appreciate Tommy for helping to preserve these old traditions and machinery.’ Bonner says growing grain is in his blood and he also enjoys watching Wright’s antique machinery at work, which was actually considered high-tech in its day. The machines allowed farmers to double the size of their crops. McCormick went on to found what eventually became the International Harvester Company. Bonner learned the trade from his father, Sam Sr., and grandfather, Robert. ‘I’ve done this my whole life,’ said Bonner. ‘We’ve always grown wheat. You start in the fall planting it, you grow it, you harvest it, and then you double crop soybeans behind it.’ Bonner says his crop doesn’t usually wind up in the supermarket as a loaf of wheat bread. ‘It goes mainly for feed,’ Bonner said. ‘It’s a pretty easy crop to grow.’ But like all farmers, the fuel crunch is also affecting Bonner’s operation. ‘It’s gone up a lot,’ Bonner said. ‘It’s like twice as much as it was last year.’ Pelham asked Bonner if there has been a comparable rise in the price of wheat. ‘Is there any increase right now’? Pelham asked. ‘Yes, there is some,’ Bonner said, ‘but I don’t know if it goes hand in hand with the increase of the cost of fuel.’ Bonner says he enjoys letting Wright harvest part of his wheat crop every year, and is fascinated by the threshing demonstrations at the Viola Valley Homecoming, and is looking forward to the Bicentennial demonstration planned for downtown. ‘It’s neat to see how it used to be done,’ Bonner said. ‘Obviously I wasn’t around when it was done this way, so it’s great to be able to see how my grandparents probably did it.’
