On the Moraine Part IX
By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist
On the farm, we were always experimenting, growing various items. I emulated my parents in this regard.
We frequented the Karnes Orchard Stand on Route 50 (approximately across the road from where Ferris Cummings lives now). One of the Karnes family worked at Hobart Bothers in Troy where my dad worked, so we had a connection.
One fall we were in their market around October, and I saw some Indian Corn (I have no idea what the politically correct name is to call it today). This corn has multicolored kernels and is often used with fall decorations such as pumpkins. My parents bought me a bunch of three ears, and we took them to the farm. All winter those three ears fascinated me.
When spring came, I wanted to plant them. Dad pointed out a piece of ground near the back of the farm, across the creek, where I could plant them. So, I took the John Deere and the disc over there and worked up that piece of ground. Next, of course, I made rows (with a garden plow), took the kernels I had shelled and planted my crop.
All summer I carefully tended to my crop, hoeing it every Saturday when we were on the farm.
It nearly all germinated. However, it was the funniest looking crop, for not being a hybrid corn, all the stalks were different heights from four feet up to about eight or nine feet. It was not all even height like the hybrid seeds farmers plant in the fields. The only other place I have seen corn stalks like this is in Guatemala, where we go for mission trips. There it is the same thing. They save seeds from the year before, and they are not hybrids.
Fall came, and I harvested my crop. I had nine or 10 gunny sacks full of corn. We took them to the barn and laid the individual ears out in an open space in the haymow to dry. Later on, we tried popping some, but that was a mixed result.
Dad also got the idea to plant some Scotch pine. He bought 1,000 seedlings, and he and I spent two Saturdays planting them on a hillside in the pasture. That was quite a job. Dad took a clothesline and tied a knot in it every 10 feet. That aided us in the row spacing. I was on my hands and knees placing the seedlings in the slot he made with a spud bar. After I placed a seedling, he would turn the bar upside down and close the slot with a swift punch with the other, fat end.
Had I known what I know now, I would have had him plant walnut trees! They would be over 60 years old now.
If you drive down McNary Road, especially in the winter, you can see the green tops of the pines above the hill far off the right side of the old lane.
Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.