By CINDY LADAGE
Illinois Correspondent

WAVERLY, Ill. — Despite the cool temperatures and damp soil conditions, the annual Horse and Antique Tractor Farming Demonstration went on as usual.

“We are going to try to plow,” Celia Edwards said in a phone conversation before the event, held the last full weekend in October.

After an inch of rain fell in the Morgan County area, on Oct. 23 and drizzle fell the following day, soil conditions were damp enough to empty farmers from the central Illinois fields.

At the plow day in rural Waverly, draft horses and mules were able to cut through the soil with ease while tractors and their plows were bogged down in the damp conditions and the corn stalks. One tractor, an Oliver with steel wheels, was able to move along while the rubber-tread tractors slipped and slid.

Several antique tractor collectors who usually bring their tractors out for a day in the field left them in the shed, but came to watch and share a bowl of chili or eat a hot dog with friends and collectors.
Many gathered around the welcoming fire that Bill and Celia Edwards had burning. Wagons pulled by draft horses offered visitors a chance to ride in ease and enjoy the sunny, but breezy, view.