The Great Uprising

The Upper Basin Chronicles

Chapter 16

The Great Uprising

With planting now nearly done except in the far reaches of the upper basin (and in places where heavy rains made old wetlands remember their former state), the great uprising began.

It swept north like a green wave rising in Missouri and southern Illinois. The emerging Midwestern maize and soybean crops wash up the Mississippi River Valley on the strength of billions of seeds. Together, Zea mays and Glycene max carry the collective power of an earthquake. Pushing roots down and shoots up, they literally move the earth.

For perhaps more than 7,500 growing seasons, the humans of North America have planted corn. Yet for less than 60 of the soybean's 2,000 years of cultivation, has the protein bean taken root as a major crop in the Upper Basin.

Rose Murphy walked the corn rows in early June. Her eight-year old knees were already Fourth-of-July-high to the corn. She paused. The rows wound along the contours, reaching away from her in beautiful fluid lines so green. A quarter of a mile away, her father's tractor hummed the diesel tune at work cultivating. Rose wanted to hear the corn grow, but the tractor's noise, and a breeze rustled the plants.

No fence separated the corn from the beans. Only a third as high as the corn, but rapidly filling the spaces between the plants in the row, the beans looked very happy to Rose. With the corn, the mesmerizing rows covered everything as far as her eyes could see. Rose looked from the horizon, turning toward the thrumming tractor, then back to look at the house. Her Grandfather Owen was walking toward her. He moved slowly. His lined faced seemed gray compared to the green of the row crops, compared to the faded blue of his bib overalls.

"Hiya, Squirt!" he said. "What do you see yonder?"

"I see a whole plenty of corn and beans, Grandpa," Rose answered. "They go on forever, I think. Just two or three weeks ago there was almost nothing growing here."

"Amazing, isn't it? Owen asked. "How one little seed can grow so quickly into a tall plant like corn, or into a bushy bean.

"Did you eat mostly corn and beans when you were little, Grandpa?" Rose asked.

"No, well, yes and no." he said. "We ate different kinds of beans, like pole beans, and string beans and red runner beans, and dried beans, and lima beans. Sweet peas, yes, sweet corn in summer like we do now, and corn bread, too. Hmm. Beans 'n bacon, and corn bread; that's good. We canned lots of beans and corn, too. We grew more thing back then, different crops, lots of things."

"Like what, Grandpa Owen? Rose asked.

"Well, let's see... We had animals. Chickens for eggs and roasting and frying, and geese, ducks, guinea hens, banty hens, turkeys. We had sheep, a couple of goats, we milked both, made cheese. We had cows for milk and cream and butter to eat and to sell, of course. We had feeder calves. Hogs, too, for bacon and ham and ribs and chops. And horses to work, a pony or two for the kids to ride, but we didn't eat them. We had a big garden, ask your Grandma Teresa about that. There was cabbages, and beans, and sweet corn, like I said, and onions and radishes, beets. And berries -- strawberries, rasberries, grapes. We picked black berries and gooseberries wild. There was cherry trees, pear trees, apple trees, apricot trees, walnut trees. Ah, rhubarb, and tomatoes and potatoes, and yams, lettuce, different kinds, too, many things there." Owen took a breath; he was sweating.

"How about in the fields?

"You're just full of questions today, Missy! Let me think now. There was oats, many oats, back then. Some wheat and barley and rye for bread. Sorghum, we pressed that for molasses. Bees, we kept bees for honey. Hay for the cattle in winter. We put up lots of hay. And pasture. We had 80 acres of just pasture. That's all gone now. Corn, of course. Soybeans didn't come 'til World War Two, when they wanted it for oleo margarine, so we grew soybeans. So much has changed..." he stopped. "Now it's just corn and beans everywhere. Makes you wonder."

"Wonder what, Grandpa?" asked Rose.

"Wonder how come you're so curious, Squirt! That's what. It makes me wonder how things can get down to just two crops and no more. Doesn't seem right."

"Why not?"

"Well, child, if you put all your eggs in one basket, or in just two baskets, and you trip and fall down, what happens?" he replied.

"Your eggs would break, Grandpa!" stated Rose.

"That's right," Owen echoed, "your eggs would break."

Rose asked no more questions. The two watched Alexander Murphy cultivating corn. The red tractor rolled back and forth across the field. The green wave swept northward, carrying corn and beans to the far uplands of the basin.

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Next week... "Benefits of Flame," Chapter 17.

The Upper Basin Chronicles, Chapter 16 was written and edited by John Gabbert.

Comments? Email feedback to The Upper Basin Chronicles, Chapter 16

The characters presented here are purely fictional, and neither bear resemblance to persons living or dead, nor represent the views or opinions of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.