Rush Hour in the Country

Bates writes of the "binder-clacking, tractor-moaning rush" that occurs each August in the corn harvest.

He notes that petrol is now "the great protagonist in the drama," having supplanted labourers with scythes. He describes the communal system under which Irish labourers worked (fueled by prodigious amounts of beer), shares anecdotes of several notable mowers, and touches on the role of women in gleaning stray ears of corn after the harvest.

In the London Evening News (August 18, 1937, attached).