Snapping Corn

[Gale Hawkins]

We only had a one row New Idea but I still hated those two down rows and some of you know why.

 

[dave1949]

We only had a one row New Idea but I still hated those two down rows and some of you know why.

Before some friends and I were old enough to drive, and had better things to do , we'd ask permission to glean harvested fields. The ends and corners were always great pickings.

 

[milkman]

I remember the "down row", we gathered corn with the team and wagon, dad took two rows on one side of the wagon and mom took two on the other side, I always got the down row behind the wagon.

 

[bigtiller]

I grew up in Nebraska and we had a mounted corn picker for our Super M like this. My dad lost two fingers try to clear a jam.

BE CAREFUL!

http://images.wisconsinhistory.org/700003050097/0305001771-l.jpg

I spent a few hours in the wagon of a rig identical to that one. With a 12 gauge shotgun at the ready, it was easy to limit out on pheasant, even got a few rabbits.

 

[stuckmotor]

I would agree, there's a lot of terms that mean the same thing. I guess it depends on where you grew up. It's like you will never hear the term "disc or discing land" around here. We harrow land. What about breaking land, ever heard that one?

We "break up" land.

 

[stuckmotor]

I remember the "down row", we gathered corn with the team and wagon, dad took two rows on one side of the wagon and mom took two on the other side, I always got the down row behind the wagon.

Would someone please explain the "down row" the only corn pickers we ever had wore pants and a shirt.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

It is the two rows of corn that ran over by the tractor, wagon etc before it got picked, snapped or what ever you call it. Picking with a team some would pick the corn in front of the horses/mules before they knocked down the corn. Our Beta Club would make money picking up down rows and around the ends when in high school.

If the corn was standing well we would pick the down rows with the picker with the header nose on the ground going the opposite direction and get a lot of it. If the corn field was fenced and you had cattle or hogs you just let them get the down corn.

The tricycle front end tractors like the 900 series Ford were great because the two row picker was mounted on the tractor so there were NO down rows. For most the pull type was the easiest to hook to and from and store and did not require a tricycle tractor. There were no grain bins at one time, only corn cribs on the farm. Shelling was down at the elevators. We would go home with a load of bales of wired tied corn shucks and cobs. I think it was free if you where selling your corn so they did not have to haul them off. It made get bedding.

 

[tcreeley]

As a kid on the farm we used a corn picker- don't know the brand but it was a single row galvanized steel picker. The corn went into the corn crib. The husks were off. I remember one truck load of corn that hadn't had all of the husks removed by the picker. Three of us kids were dropped off at the old barn and husked the pile. It had been there for a week or two and the husks were damp and slimy near the tassle. I understood then the reason for a corn crib with its slanted slatted walls and larger roof.
A guy would come to the farm with a grinder mounted on his truck and grind our corn and blow it into our grain room (paneled with wood over galvanized tin to keep out the rats), or sometimes bag it in 100lb burlap bags. We shoveled the grain into the grain cart that we rolled down the aisle in front of the stanchioned cows 2x/day for feeding. Each cow got a set amount (by grain scoops) depending on what kind of producer she was, and how far along.

Never heard of corn snapper until today- it was always a corn picker.

 

[stuckmotor]

Thanks, Gayle. I don't think I've ever seen a picker operate, except on TV or you tube.

 

[stuckmotor]

Has anyone ever picked corn by hand, using a husking glove. Many years ago there was a man from Iowa, on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, who demonstrated how they were used to pick corn and leave the husk on the stalk? The glove had a small spike on it to cut the husk.