There is no longer Mussolini on the Orsi threshing machines as in the newsreels of the mid-1930s, but one could say that the 'battle of wheat' continued after the war by looking at these images. It is a documentary (16mm, 25') dedicated to the congress of agrarian mechanics held in Reggio Emilia on 26 and 27 June 1949 and made by Amos Landini, a technical draftsman, and his friend Renato Losi, a photographer who initiated Amos into amateur filmmaking. After the speeches, breaks and a visit to the factories and workshops of tractor and agricultural machinery manufacturers, we witness - in this extract from the film - the exhibition and practical demonstration of the latest technological advances for mechanising agriculture. Here then is the mechanical threshing, which takes place in the threshing floor of a large farm. Young farmers and peasants take part, appearing as enthusiastic workers, there will still be a need for their bodies and muscles in the progress of agriculture. A few older people look on in amazement and children toss grains at each other in a playful and peculiar 'grain battle'. A new type of hydraulic plough is then presented to the congressmen, while the finale is reserved for 'an automatic harrow of practical use', as the caption of this silent film says. Two ancient agricultural tools, centuries old if not millennia old, renewed by technology and pulled by powerful motorised tractors. The last shot is reserved for the smiles of the peasant women, a good omen for the bright future of Italian agriculture and mechanical industry.