Corn Harvest

Along the lower Housatonic River the broad Sheffield floodplain offers rich soil for growing many square miles of silage corn for the few large milk farms in the area and in northern Connecticut. This summer rain and high water threatened the planting, at times muddying the stalks several feet up. Still, after some weeks of little or no rain and plentiful sun, the fields have dried and the corn has ripened just as two light frosts browned the tops and ended the growing season.
Today the early fall air carried the unmistakable sound of the corn chopper as the huge machine circled field after field moving faster than a man can run and attended by large semi-trailer trucks. In just one circuit of a field the chopper fills its truck with minced corn, stalks, ears, and tassels, the howl of the chopper and blower operating at a steady pitch.
In a seasonal dance, the chopper and truck seem to float across the fields, each filled truck replaced on the run with an empty one as they course around and around until the field is but stubble between hedgerow trees.