My Country 'Tis of Thee by David Harris

Author:David Harris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Heyday

SINCE DECEMBER THE AAM had been making plans for visiting Washington, D.C., and the encounter with Bergland in Omaha only spurred the group on. By consensus of the membership, January 18, 19, and 20 were finally set as the demonstration dates, and word was flashed to the nation’s strike offices. In the meantime, the AAM worked to extend its base. After spreading throughout the western wheat belt and the devastated Southeast, the strike was now beginning to extend into the prime corn-belt land in the heart of the Midwest.

The very center of the corn belt is Bethany, in central Illinois. Central and southern Illinois are blessed with the richest farmland in the nation. The strike had reached Bethany and surrounding Moultrie County when Bill Rowe watched the December 30 evening news and heard an announcement that the AAM was planning a meeting at Taylorville Junior High School in Christian County, thirty-five miles away. Rowe was curious but, like most farmers in the area, far from desperate. Blessed with strong ground, Illinois farmers have some of the best economies in all of agriculture. Illinois alone produces 10 percent of the total world production of both corn and soybeans. Nevertheless, Bill Rowe and his wife, Carole, drove to Taylorville to find out more.

Bill, 29, and his father, Eugene, 58, farm 1,120 acres of corn and soybeans. All of the farmers in the neighborhood pride themselves on their farming skills and race to see who will get their crops in first when the cover of winter snow finally melts off the fields. Last year Bill and Eugene, thanks in no small part to their huge $50,000 four-wheel-drive Steiger tractor, were the first ones in and had all their corn planted by April 18. Their beans were down by the middle of May.

Moultrie County farmers like to get in early so that their plants will be strong enough to survive the vagaries of the Illinois summer. Last year temperatures rose to more than 100 degrees during the crucial time when most of the corn crop was pollinating, and much of the local farmers’ production suffered. Thanks to an early start, the Rowes’ corn was already pollinated and forming ears before the heat wave hit. The Rowes’ crops also survived the June-to-August hail season, and Bill and Eugene were among the first to reach the elevators with their harvest. Even so, the price was too low, and Bill Rowe and his father decided to store their grain and wait for the price to rise. When Bill and his wife attended the Taylorville meeting, they had been waiting four months and the price had yet to respond. At that time, Bill had $136,000 in outstanding obligations on his crops above and beyond his land payments, and his stored grain was worth barely $90,000. Despite the losses staring him in the face, he was not worried about going out of business in 1978 or even 1979, but he did worry about what would happen if losses piled up.

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