Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-07-29
Wheat Harvest Thrills City Chap

sometimes less if the weather was
good, then moved on.
But the real drama of the har-
vest was out on the farm.
Everything I worked all year
for is right out there" said Joe
Kumor, indicating the 800-odd
acres of wheat that he and his
son, Leo, worked on their 1,750-
acre farm and on some nearby
rented acres.
For Joe Kumor, 70, the day
really began at 8 am. when
a fierce electrical storm ripped
across the plains, filling the night
with terror and beauty. Joe ran
around shutting up the sheds and
the granary in anticipation of
the downpour that hit farms all
around but mercifully missed his
place. Rain can hold up the
cutting for days.
BY the time he got back to
sleep. his wife Anna already was
stirring in the kitchen, fixing a
walloping farm breakfast of eggs,
hot cakes and home-cured bacon.
In the old days, when neighbors
got together to work the steam
threSher, she might have cooked
for 20 or more people. But now
that the combines did all the
work in one operation there was
only the hired man, who slept in
the basement, Mr.. Pfeifer and his
family, who broke their regular
routine of travelling by trailer to
stop with the Kumors, and one
very itinerant reporter.
Mr.. Pfeiffer's boys stayed at the
hotel in town and took their
breakfast at the crowded cafe. BY
z o'clock they were casing up
in the farm yard but it wasn't
until the dew burned off an hour
later that the combines bit into
the fields. Within 40 minutes
Vicky Kumor, Joe's youngest
daughter who teaches the third
grade in a Denver school the rest
Of the year, was dashing out to
the scale to weigh in the days
first truck load of wheat. 1t came
to just under 800 bushels.
Mosquitoes q Problem
The sun beat down with a sultry
penetrating heat, but the cutting
went on all morning with only
a few minor distractions. Pleas
ants and jack rabbits scurried
away at the approach of the COM
bines, and a hungry horde of
mosquitoes swarmed about the
drivers already bedeviled by the
thick dust, which always is at its
worst in a year of heavy black
rust infestation.
THE bugs are terrific at night,
when we run with the lights on"
said 17-year-old Henry LORI of
Harvey, N. D., who never had been
out of his State before he joined
the harvest. He gets SITS an hour
cutting time only.
Leo, the farmers 26-year-old
son, was trained in agriculture
and economics at a Colorado State
College. This training compile
ments his fathers seat-cf- the
pants experience at a time when
the farmer spends almost as much
time over books and tax forms
as he does in the fields.
Dad misses the old freedom, +"
said Leo, as his combine headed
down mile-long field. He can't
see why the Government won't let
him grow as much wheat as he
wants to. You know, people are
always grumbling about farm sup
ports, but they don't take time
to see the farmers side of it.
When I graduated from high
school in 1858, I wanted a new
car, SO Dad let me grow 80 acres
of wheat, The wheat then sold
for $2.40 buShel and the car cost
me $4,000. Now, on the same land,
I can only grow 43 acres of wheat,
the selling price is only $50 a
bushel and the same model car
would cost me more than $4,000
The farmers acreage is down, his
prices are down, but everything
he buys is up"
Quick Lunch Break
Lunch for the harvest hands
was a 15-minute break for a
sandwich. tomato, a peach and
a glass of milk, served on the
tail gate of Julius pickup truck
Leo headed back to his house and
sat down to hot meal of ham
peas, potatoes, salad and straw
l. l.. A., ....c E