Shocking Corn

                                                        Sheboygan County Historical Research Center Photo

Nothing has changed faster in Midwestern agriculture than how the crops are harvested each fall.  Take corn for example.  Consider how it was commonly done when I was a kid—back in the 1940s and 1950s. In those days we grew about 20 acres of corn.  None of it was sold off the farm, it was used to feed our livestock during the long winters.

After the first frost, the corn plants began to dry down.  Pa would hitch the team to the one-row corn binder, which cut the corn and tied it into bundles. Once the corn was cut, we stood the bundles into corn shocks for further drying. About ten bundles in a shock. I was describing shocking corn to a class of fourth graders a few years ago.  A young fellow raised his hand, “Mr. Apps, why did you try to scare the corn?”  He interpreted the word shocking to scaring the corn.

Shocking corn was hard work.  But usually, the days were crisp and cool.  I have never forgotten the smell of drying corn stalks.  It was the smell of fall, not at all an unpleasant one.

After a few weeks in a shock, a fellow with a corn shredder made the rounds of the neighborhood farmers.  Just as in threshing oats, we had a corn shredding bee.  The machine separated the ears from the corn stalks and cut the corn stalks into a little pieces that were blown into the barn loft.  The corn stalks were used for bedding the milk cows during the winter.

The corn ears were stored in a corn crib, a little building with slats a few Inches apart so the air could easily flow into it.  The corn ears continued to dry.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  Sometimes it’s important to stop what we are doing for a moment and think about how it was done at an earlier time.

 

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

It’s not too early for Christmas shopping.  Books make great gifts.  You can buy my books at your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.