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Picking corn by hand

One of the biggest changes in farming in the last 100 years has been the way corn is harvested. Some old-timers claim that men got a great thrill out of corn-husking time, that it was, in fact, the athletic event of the year. This was an event where young men, especially, could show off their strength and endurance, plus score some records as to how many bushels of corn they could pick in a day. To be known as a big corn picker — a 100-bushels man — was the ambition of most young men.

Like any athlete, a champion corn picker had to be in good condition to score records, which in this case meant calluses on the hands and muscles hardened for the job.

There was also a trick to hand-husking corn. First of all, the men had to possess a good hook, such as a Boss thumb hook. This was a leather strap that fit over the heel of the hand, buckled on the outside of the wrist, and, most importantly, had a steel hook that ran parallel to the inside of the thumb. The key to gliding from corn husk to corn husk with apparent ease and no lost motion was getting into a rhythm. That rhythm required blocking everything out of the mind except the technique of, “one, two, three “grab the ear, slit the husk, toss the ear in the wagon,” said over and over again all day long.

A corn wagon, pulled by horses, would move slowly down the field as the pickers tossed the corn into the wagon. At the turn of the century, before bangboards were invented, the corn was picked with five men to a wagon and an extra man to haul corn to the crib. A down row was made every time through the field with one man picking behind the wagon and two on each side. After bangboards were added to the side of the wagon the pickers moved together along one side of the wagon tossing the corn at the bangboard.

This proved to be a much faster method. But the bangboards did not always guarantee that the huskers would not miss the board and the corn would land on the ground. The frugal farmer made sure that all ill-tossed corn was picked up from the ground.

The corn harvest would last for weeks, especially if the weather did not cooperate and snow fell early in October. Often farmers would pick corn right up to the end of November, even if it meant trudging through the snow to retrieve the precious crop.

Although many old-timers recall picking up to 100 bushels per day, the average was more like 30 bushels. Today, the corn-picking machines can make 500-bushel pickers out of most farmers with a lot less hard work involved.

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