Then and Now - Corn harvest

Back then, corn harvesting was a very labor-intensive job, even with the machines of the early twentieth century. At the Rose Hill Manor / Farm Musem fall festival some of the early machinery to aid the harvest was demonstrated. There are three steps: cut the corn, remove the shucks, and shell the corn. I did not see how they cut the corn in the field, but it was brought to the shucker on a wagon. This old corn shucker is powered by a belt driven by a tractor. Corn, stalks and all, is fed into shucker. Corn on the cob comes out green tube on the right and drops into a wagon; chopped stalks and shucks come out the pipe on the left.

This corn sheller is even older than the shucker. It is belt driven, powered by a one-cylinder engine. The corn is fed (again manually) into the trough on the right. Kernels of corn come out the white tube. The cobs ride up the trough on the left.

Now, this machine cuts 6 rows of corn, shucks it, shells it and leaves the waste in the field for compost. When its internal bin is full, it stops by the truck in the far end of the field and unloads the corn and goes back across the field.