Corn Harvesting

With the Harvest Fall Festival fast approaching, this blog post will be focusing on the practices and tools involved in the harvesting of corn.

Corn has always been an important crop in farmers fields creating not only a food source for humans and animals but for food production and bio-fuel as well. It has become a staple food and energy source with its production surpassing that of wheat or rice today; Canada alone produces over 10 million metric tonnes of corn per year. However, corn wasn’t always produced in such mass amounts; before the days of industrial farming and the equipment that accompanies it, all corn harvesting was done by hand with tools from the museums collection.

When harvesting time arrived in the fall, the corn had to be removed from the stalks by hand, this brought about the invention of the husking peg. A husking peg is a small wooden spike, used through mid to late the 1800s, that would be hand held or attached to the hand with a leather strap. This peg would be pushed under the husk of the corn and pulled downwards, ripping open the husk. The corn could then easily be pulled and cut from the stalk. Once all corn was harvested, the kernels would then need to be separated from the cob, this could be done by hand or with the use of a corn sheller. A corn sheller is a machine in which a single corn cob is inserted, and a wheel is turned stripping the cob of kernels. The kernels are then emptied from the bottom while the bare cob is removed from the side. These were common tools on a farm having been used from as early as the 1840s until the 1950s.

Since harvesting corn required so much effort for the small yield, work bees would often be organized to combine the work with others. These bees were often held in the evening and would be accompanied with games and music. Piles of harvested corn ears were arranged in the center of the room and people make it a competition to see how many ears of corn they can husk. These activities not only raised crop output but community morale and relationships as well.

As this year’s harvest season approaches and gardens bloom with their produce, keep the Fall Festival on September 9^th in mind as we are looking for always appreciated donations. If you would like to donate preserves, baked goods, produce, or plants, please contact Barbara Newman (613-678-6845) or the museum directly.