European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 16, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                To Sta Fly on Swap s farm in Longford Kansas la harvested with the help of neighbors and a team of belgian horses drawing a hat Wagon. The spirit of Rural America by Jules Loh associated press Jack creep s wheat got Cut bundled shocked racked hauled and threshed this year even though Jack was not there to help nothing unusual about that in Longford northeastern Kansas Community of 109 Friendly souls or. For that Mailer in any other arming Community in the land. It is an axiom of Rural living if a neighbor needs help you help Jack Greep a Man with a Mission died just after planting time. His deals May explain Why his neighbors seemed to go at this year s Harvest of his wheat with a special Fervour. For the last 13 years of Jack creep s life Hal would be from about the time the agricultural experts began predicting seriously the inevitable extinction of the american family farm Jack had set aside each year iwo acres of wheat for the sole purpose of celebrating the values that the family farm represents the two acres survived the drought. Whether the values will survive is a question Jack had the feeling said his widow to Greep sitting under a Shade tree taking in the ageless scene of a wheat Harvest in Progress that Allol what this Means to Allol us and. Really to lha country would be lost in family arms vanished. He started doing in i guess just for sentimental reasons. What you re looking at is an old fashioned threshing Bee " indeed and the labor involved just for old Lime s Sake demonstrated Why the agricultural experts Are Likely right. All that cutting bundling shocking racking hauling and threshing by All those sweating men and slip mag animals on Jack of fico s two acres now is done in one operation by one Man in one air conditioned Combine moving through Miles of Ripe wheat As effortlessly As a paddle a Jheri Lea boat on a still Lake but nowhere near As romantic. What May be lost Wilh the chaff of efficiency Are those Bedrock american values that Norman Rockwell celebrated and Jack Greep cherished and his willing neighbors still cling to. Well the family Arm has been sell Deal ruling since Long before combines came on the scene and not always because of world economics and drought the epitaphs of the 60s. Good of american know How was an earlier Culp ii. Aboul 25 million americans have left the land since 1930. At that Lime Tarm families represented one fourth of the nation s population alter world War ii As Industry turned out larger tractors and combines and More effective chemical fertilizers and pesticides Small scale Farmers simply could t match the Cost per Bushel efficiency of the big operators. Now. Of the nation s 2.2 million Farmers fewer than 380,000 Are family Farmers those whose Only livelihood is farming. They must compete against 130.000 big operators who produce 75 percent of the nation s food. The ederal office of technology assessment figures that by the year 2000 As Lew As 50,000 Large scale Farmers could gel the Job done. Obviously says to Greep in in t for food production that America needs family farms. It s for Tho spirit of neighbor Linss and Fellowship you re seeing right out there in that Field i Don i say those qualities exist Only in Rural America no at All. But i do think thai it there is such a thing As a National character Rural America has had a lot to do with shaping it symbolically ii family farms were to vanish yes i feel it would be a National  for one thing there would be no further reason for owns like Longford to exist. Longford has one Street a Post Olf Ico. A store a Grain elevator and an establishment called slim s place where the hand lettered sign Oul front advertises hamburgers & ammunition and the hand lettered sign inside says this is not Burger King you gel it my Way or you Don t got it Al All " if those Fellows doing the threshing want something a Little stronger than iced Tea said slim Patterson the proprietor this is where they will find  there is no question the men in the Field were working up a thirst. They took their turns pitching wheal bundles onto a Flat Wagon a rack they called it drawn by a team of belgian draft horses wide in the beam and  climbed Alop the rack proving they still could and pitched the wheat onto the throbbing conveyor Bell of the Thresher old Guys showing Oft for their wives who were frying chickens and Maing Olalo salad drought or not Farmers never seem underfed. A Thresher this one of 1925 Vintage is a marvelous contraption of a dozen Bells and gears and wheels and levers. A tractor As determined to keep going at ago 52 As the men on the rack provides Power for the Thresher. Together they appear to gel Iho Job done to separate the wheat my the chaff. And the men from the boys. Some of the youngsters wonder How we know How to work this thing mall hew Heigle shouted above the Clatter of 1he belts and the wheels. Heigele explained How Jack Greep had acquired the Thresher when a eco year old neighbor died some years Back. An old tractor turned up in another barn harness in another wagons Here and there and a tradition was born of tradition. I Don t think anybody would want logo Back to this kind of  Heigele said but i think it s important to show his generation How we used to do it. We helped one another farm by Tarm because there were Only a handful of threshers in the whole county and that was the Only Way to gel it done. Ii got people together. Ii reminded us How much we depend on one another thai s a Good lesson for everybody nol just Farmers. I guess Ihal s Why i be been Oul Here every year for the past 13. It s not Only Tun. It s  sunday october 16, 1988 the stars and stripes Page 13