The Idled Deere

Tobacco in the fields and hang­ing in the barns used to be a big part of our rur­al Clark County land­scape. Tobacco is still grown here, but there are a lot few­er of those green and gold fields. I noticed the oth­er day that some of those fields are already being cut. Whatever else you think about tobac­co, when it is in the har­vest stage it is a beau­ti­ful plant, in my opin­ion. And the annu­al income from it kept many a small fam­i­ly farm afloat financially.

I took this pho­to sev­er­al years ago along a light­ly trav­eled Clark County road with a point-and-shoot cam­era that I always had with me back then. With my car parked safe­ly out of the way of any unlike­ly traf­fic, I walked up the slight bank and took the pho­to from the fence bor­der­ing the field. It had rained ear­li­er, and was threat­en­ing to rain again. I won­dered if that is what tem­porar­i­ly halt­ed haul­ing the tobac­co to the barn.