D6-Uncaster Farming Saturday, January 4,1985
Picking Corn:
It’s a common failing to
reminisce about the good old days
of agriculture and think only of
bright spring mornings when the
plowing and planting was done,
and hot summer days when the
grain was harvested and they hay
was baled. But there was one job -
picking corn - that was usually
done around our neighborhood in
November and December when it
was cold or wet, or both, and it
could also be muddy - at least until
the ground froze.
So there I was, still a growing
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Talk
Jerry Webb
Then and Now
boy up before daylight to feed and
harness two black horses and hook
them to the wagon. These tasks
were usually completed before the
paid com pickers arrived at 7 a.m.
Then off to the field for a long cold
day of hand picking.
The sun never shone and it was
never warm like it is during the fall
in this part of the country - or at
least I never remember it that
way. It was just one long, cold corn
row, husking the ears, snapping
them from the stalk, throwing
them in the general direction of the
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INC.
295'Woodcorner Rd.
Lititz, PA 17543
1 Mile West of Ephrata
wagon,
With two men and a boy working
and a team of horses that would
keep the wagon moving along
beside the workers, we could make
one load before lunch. If the yield
was particularly good we could get
a load and a half, and on a day
three loads by dark.
Of course, it got dark early in
November and December - so the
afternoons were pretty short and
often we were still finishing a load
when the sun went down. That
meant unloading and taking care
of the horses in the dark. Back
then, we were lucky to have
electricity in the house so you know
there was no light in the barn. That
meant tending to the needs of two
large horses in almost total
darkness - not an easy task.
It’s funny how certain things
stick in your mind over that many
years. When I think about picking
corn by hand and the first thing I
remember is being cold. Despite
all effforts otherwise, my feet were
always cold. I also remember the
men I worked with - two rough
talking farmhands who enjoyed
wine, women and off-color humor
in that order. When they were
without them they amused
themselves by harassing the kid
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ARNETTS GARAGE
Rt. 9 Box 125
Hagerstown, MD
Ph: (301) 733-0515
S.G. LEWIS AND SON
West Grove, PA
Ph: (215) 869-9440
869-2214
ABRACZINSKA’S FARM EQUIP. INC.
RDI, Catawissa, PA
Ph: (717)356-2323
(South on Rt. 42)
who was trying to hold up his end of
a man’s job. I got to pick down the
rows, hustle the ears that missed
the wagon, use the worst shucking
peg and suffer all sorts of verbal
abuse.
I remember picking corn in the
snow, which happened fairly often.
An early December snow would
come with com still in the field and
there was no choice but to bundle
up and continue working.
It was a cold, lonely job, made
bearable only by the thought that if
we hurried we’d be done before
Christmas.
What a change those big
machines made. At first, there was
the one row picker, towed behind a
Farmall tractor with a wagon
behind that. Then came the
mounted pickers that bolted right
around the tractor. They were
replaced by self-propelled pickers
and finally the combines that pick
and shell in one operation.
What a difference. Today a
farmer spends about four times as
much for his combine as our
family received for the farm when
N.H. FLICKER & SONS, INC.
Maxatawny, PA
Ph: (215) 683-7252
MARLIN W. SCHREFFLER
Pitman, PA
Ph: (717)648-1120
Massey-Ferguson
Where farmers’ ideas take root.
it was sold in the late 1940’5.
Today’s farmer sits in a glassed-in
cab that is soundproof and heated,
or cooled, depending on the
weather. There’s also a built-in
radio, power steering and power
brakes, a tilting telescoping
steering wheel and levers that
control every function, including
unloading without stepping out into
the weather.
This machine can do in a week
what took three farmhands two
months to do. The corn picker
changed agriculture just as the
tractor did before it. Now it seems
to be a matter of how much land a
farmer can gain control of that
limits his operations. With rare
exceptions, the machines are there
to do the work.
I can look back 40 years and
honestly say that I don’t miss
anything about picking com by
hand. If we lost anything when the
machines came along I can’t think
what it was, with the possible
exception of gloves with two
thumbs. That still sounds like a
pretty neat idea.
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M.M. WEAVER & SON
N. Groffdale Rd.
Leola, PA 17540
Ph: (717) 656-2321
R.W. KELLER SALES
Perkasie, PA 18444
Ph; (215) 257-0101
LEBANON VALLEY IMPLEMENT CO.
700 E. Linden St.
Richland, PA
Ph: (717)866-7518