It was a big deal. It was all under irrigation. That area is famous for contract fields not only of agronomic seed production but things like Green Giant green beans and other vegetables.
That fall I met one on the legendary pioneers of the seed corn industry, one of the Funk brothers. Probably only older farmers know that name, but in the world of agronomic seeds he and his brother are famous. The company I worked for leased one of his processing plants to clean and store the corn from that 5000 acres. I heard he had a a million dollar rock and mineral collection and being a rock collector myself, my imagination was ignited.
He lived not far from that plant so one day I went over there, knocked and met him. He was in his low nineties, hale and hardy. He gave me permission to see his collection which was kept in a modern building at the family mansion. The caretakers there let me in, and I gotta tell you, it was one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen!
