by Darren Horton

Created on: January 10, 2011   Last Updated: March 05, 2011

Farmer Tom and his oldest, most reliable farm hand, Ode Frank, carried a fertilizer bag down the field.  It looked empty but the way in which they carried it suggested it wasn’t.  They carried it carefully, a corner in each hand to keep it balanced equally between them, and level.

Several of the more inquisitive cows followed them, thinking it might be food.

Their destination was an old concrete water-trough situated at the bottom of the field between two bramble bushes.  The instant the bag touched the ground the cows were there, congregating around them, jostling for position like a pack of scavenging mongrels.

“Anybody’d think you were never fed,” said Farmer Tom, shooing them back to give Ode Frank a little space to work.  He handed Ode Frank an orange strand of baler-twine from his pocket (because a farmer always carries a piece of string in his pocket) and Ode Frank began to fasten up the open end of the bag. 

One of the cows wondered what Ode Frank was doing - tying the bag instead of opening it - and she gave him a gentle nudge to show her annoyance.  “There’s nowt f’you in ‘ere,” he said, pushing her away softly with an open palm. 

Whilst Ode Frank tied up the bag, Farmer Tom was rummaging through a pile of stones in the bottom of the hedgerow.  He picked up a football-sized boulder; tested the weight and said, “a rock’ll come in handy.  It will”. 

Every year the plough would bring up a multitude of new stones.  These stones were ‘stone-picked’ – flung into a trailer - or thrown into hedgerows, out of harms way, where they wouldn’t pose a future risk to expensive farm machinery.  He’d once had an argument with a non-farmer about stones that appeared to ‘grow’ in the soil alongside the crop.  The non-farmer had scoffed at the idea.  But it was true.   Year after year, in the same patch of soil, the plough, always running at the same depth, brought up a fresh batch of ‘new potatoes’ as his father had called them.

Farmer Tom carried the large stone to Ode Frank who felt the weight of it in his hands too, and he nodded, satisfied, “Ay,” he said, “That’ll do”.

Ode Frank fixed a triple-knot around the stone and pulled on the twine, testing it.  Then he fastened the large stone to the bag, looping and knotting the twine

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>