Cigarettes drooping mournfully from the corners of their mouths, the French farmers clustered in the cornfield, waiting for the show to begin. A bottle of wine protruded from the hip pocket of one, a long loaf of bread from another. Professor Jay C. Hackleman, a University of Illinois agronomist on loan to the Mutual Security Agency, mounted the corn wagon. "Where's Elmer?" somebody whispered. In a moment Elmer Carlson, 43, a bronzed, strapping Iowa farmer and onetime U.S. national cornhusking champion, was found—on hands & knees inspecting a newfangled carbide scarecrow. Looking like a miniature 75-mm. cannon and operating on the...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
