Right before the Corn Harvest event I told about how we had to go out and purchase shocks of corn for the program since the critters ate all of ours from the field. Despite the record attendance of 2,300 visitors that day we still ended up with some of the shocks left. Thanks to Paul we are getting ready to hand shuck the wagon load and add it to the crib.
This process is a lot like how it was done in the 1920's-1940's.
Before machines like the corn binder, farmers would take a wagon and a team out to the field and harvest all the corn by hand picking each ear off the stock. Because the corn was "check planted" the spacing was even both side to side and front to back. All the plants were 42" (The reason for 42"? The average size of a horse's rump. They had to have that space so that the corn wouldn't be stepped on during cultivation) from each other. Just imagine a perfect 42" square - then the sides of the square being rows. It is kind of like a military cemetery. All the headstones form a perfect line no matter what direction you look at them. With plants in a square they used to say picking corn was a sort of a "farmers square dance" since you sway to one side, pick the corn then step forward and sway the other working your way through the field. Just imagine picking a 40 acre field of corn. The really good pickers would work so fast that they could keep an ear of corn in the air at all times. A reasonable expectation might be 4 acres a day for hand picking. Once the corn binder was introduced the process of picking corn rapidly increased. The binder was pulled through the field and would cut and wrap about 6 or so stalks together. This gives us a shock. Then the farmers would come through the field and tie a bunch of the shocks together and let them finish drying. In the fall many people associate the shocks with the season but few realize what the purpose of a shock. Once the shocks dried then they were loaded on a wagon and brought to the farmyard. Then they were either shucked out by hand or if the farmer had invested in a machine called a husker/shredder the ears were mechanically removed at a much faster pace. After WW 2 farming technology took another huge leap forward and combines were introduce and they would combine the jobs of picking and shelling (taking the kernels off the cob). So there is your little ag history lesson for the day. Anyone want to help us shuck??
