Bringing in the sheaves

the long version

Every spring, as the wheat begins to ripen in Texas, harvesting crews gather, load trucks, trailers and enormous combines, and head to the southernmost wheat fields of Americas great midwestern "breadbasket" to begin the annual harvest, an undertaking that will literally feed the world for the coming year. Here Richard Higgs depicts that season of harvest in words and photographs. In this vast landscape he tells the story of the wheat itself, and the elements that challenge those who come to cut it. Higgs also writes with a keen awareness of the history of the wheatlands, the places where for centuries open prairies welcomed bison and plains Indians before American farmers came to break the sod and plant the wheat.