This Was Wheat Farming

Reach into the grain bin for a handful of wheat…and as it runs out through your fingers, so do more than 6000 years since wheat was grown in Persian Gulf lands. The story of this age-old, most extensive grain crop the world has ever seen, parallels that of mankind and author Kirby Brumfield makes the point clear. Wheat in the Northwest? Yes, it’s all here, acres of it in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. The lore of the harvest is the keynote of Brumfield’s presentation…the romance of growing and harvesting the crop, and the growing civilization of humanity, adept at improving its lot and more skilled at the mechanics of living…until in 1831 Cyrus McCormick demonstrated a reaper that revolutionized wheat harvesting. Brumfield approaches this vast subject with considerable facility and sows grains of interest in every paragraph. He lifts farming right out of the soil into fascinating history, with accent on the Northwest.