[AT] Some tractor show fun...

[Guy Fay]

Some of the crop display folks at Thresheree had an interesting idea a 
couple years ago that has really taken off: potato digging. We're a 
Labor Day weekend show, so they're ready for harvest. They announce the 
potato digging over the intercom out in the display field, and that the 
potatos are free, first come, first serve. A one row McCormick-Deering 
potato digger is used. The guys have a Cub field day in the spring to 
plant the potatoes and, new this year, sorghum.

Needless to say, in a couple of short years, this has become a popular 
event. Small paper sacks are provided, and the nearby crew report that 
it's quite fun to watch women in high heels out in the newly dug rows.

A photographer from the nearby daily newpaper heard about this and came 
out during the show to shoot the folks out in the field digging. 
Unfortunately, he made a strategic error. He placed himself between the 
main show area and the potatos. When the digging was announced over the 
intercom, he saw the crowd coming, and was taking picutres. However, the 
crowd this year was a bit boisterous, and he got jostled and had to move 
out of the way before he was run over in the stampede. According to 
rumor, he was pretty scared.

The sorghum went well for the first year- it takes all day to cook down 
a batch, so they're tweaking schedules and figuring out sizes of 
plantings and some crop raising techneques to get bigger stalks and more 
juice.

Of course, I wonder when we're getting into carrots, which are a major 
crop a little east of the show grounds. Of course, some city folks would 
then expect us to plant some steers so they could have pot roast.

Guy Fay