As High as an Elephant's Eye

 As High as an Elephant’s Eye
As I was driving to and from church Sunday morning and Sunday evening I have to drive through several farms. The road cuts through some of the fields. This year several farmers have planted corn. The stalks of corn have grown to tremendous heights. The rows of corn stalks have grown to impressive sizes. They are nearly eight feet high. They are just coming into tassel and may gain some more height yet. The lower leaves arch graceffully while the top leaves point skyward in sharp spears. At the very top, tassels for a feathery crown.
I am concerned when I drive through this section of road. The corn grows very close to both sides of the pavement. There is no way to stop if a deer suddenly emerges from the green jungle of corn stalks. Many years ago a deer collided with the side of my son Andrew’s Geo Tracker. The large doe pushed the door post behind his seat pressing against the back of his car seat. The deer totaled his vehicle. An odd thing happened with the wreck. The insurance company paid him nearly five hundred dollars more than what he paid for the vehicle. On occasion I’ve seen other deer dead and lying along this section of the highway. At the other farms along this roadway, the corn stalks grow only on one side of the road, but the threat of being surprised by deer remains the same.
This year’s many days of rain and long exposure to the hot and sunny days seem to have placed a growth spell on the corn crops. I heard a friend at church say that a nearby farmer had corrn stalks ten feet high. If true, I can’t ever remember seeing stalks growing that tall. This crop of field corn when harvested should fill the farmer’s silos with silage providing plenty of feed for the cattle during the upcoming winter cold months.
The saying that I’ve heard quoted by farmers about the growth necessary for the corn stalks in the field is that the corn stalks should be “knee high by the fourth of July.” The corn stalks were much higher than that this year and now as it is approaches harvest time, the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye.