OH, DEERE!
Antique tractor club gets dirty

HEBRON - Burt Lane's trailer says it all--he loves antique tractors. The Newark resident was ready early Saturday morning to unload his trailer and crank up his 1958 John Deere 530 tractor to plow a few acres of a Palmer Road field with about 20 of his fellow antique tractor enthusiasts. It was the annual Land of Legend Antique Tractor Club's plowing event. During the weekend, the vintage tractors, mainly John Deere, plowed about 100 acres.

"I love them all," said Lane of antique tractors, no matter the vintage or color. Lane said his John Deere 530 is the great-grandson of the classic John Deere Model B--produced from the 1930s to early 1950s--and the last of the two cylinder models. Lane's interest in tractors began at childhood when he grew up on a farm. He left the farm to pursue a career elsewhere, but when retirement loomed he returned to his roots and explored his interest in antique tractors.

T h e we e k e n d offered nearly picture perfect spring days a n d t h e a n n u a l plowing event was well attended, said Jeff Martin of the H W Martin & Son seed company. The event is about eight years old, and Martin said the antique tractor enthusiasts will plow in either the spring or autumn, depending u p o n t h e s o i l conditions. He said the

majority of the tractors

participating this year were John Deeres from the 1930s and 1940s.