In the field adjacent to ours a huge combine lumbers up and down, noisily, leaving a trail of dust in its wake.

The huge machinery and the large fields (remember when the countryside was a patchwork of small areas bounded by hedges?) are responsible for the reduction of farm workers.  A large, modern farm only employs one farm worker per thousand acres.  A lonely job and far removed from farming of yesteryear.  The yields increase for sure but at what cost?