The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-11-21
CRlBBING CORN.
Gusk Clean and DO Not Crib Until the
Corn Is Dry to the Cob.

Corn Is Dry to the Cob.
One may easily begin cribbing too
SOON Getting the corn in the crib too
early is even more disastrous than leav-
ing it in the field too long. Corn that
heats and molds in the crib is altogeth-
er damaged. Every ear ruins its neigh
Dor And as the catastrophe takes place
last round the outside of the crib, where
the corn is exposed freely to the air,
the damage is apt to have made lam
entable progress in the interior before
it is discovered unless one is very
watchful indeed. 1t will not stop the
heating and molding to throw the top
off the crib. That is the worse thing
one can do. The damage may be miti
gated by spreading the corn out in a
dry, airy place.
Be sure the corn is cured and then go
ahead and as fast as you can. Corn can
be fed when it will not be fit to crib
for two to six weeks.
That corn may keep properly in a crib
it must not be husked until cured. IL
must be husked clean, and the crib
must shelter it from the weather. Corn
should not be cribbed until it is dry
feels dry, down to the very cob 1t may
be cribbed when wet with rain (if we'll
cured) without appreciate damage, if
not too much of it is put in the crib,
but undoubtedly it is better to have it
dry altogether when cribbed. By clean
husking, says a Country Gentleman
correspondent, l mean removing the silk
as well as the husk and removing all
the husk. When the silk is not removed
and when ribbons in the crib are fire.
quent, the chances Of molding are in
creased, and the depredations of mice
are multiplied. The mice are highly
pleased by the juxtaposition of bedding
and food.
Husk and silk absorb moisture and
hold it. Very few in the west remove
the silk. Yet it is as hurtful as the
quantity of husk that would condemn
husker's work as decidedly slovenly
The huskers that do not remove the
silk claim that to remove it takes time;
that the men that remove it do not husk
so much corn. My observation is to the
contrary. OF the huskers of my ac
quaintance those that remove the silk
put as much corn in the crib as those
that do not. The latter assert that re-
movingthe silk requires an extra pass"
which is true The man that pays no at
tention to the silk in husking catches
the ear at its butt with his left hand,
strips back the upper half of the husk
with his right hand, and then catching
the ear with the right hand he lifts it
out of its bed and breaks it off. The
man that removes the silk catches the
point of the ear, including the silk,
with his lett hand, strips back the up
per half of the husk with his right
hand, pushes his left hand to the butt
of the ear and breaks off the ear with
his right hand The left hand is passed
to the butt of the ear while the right
hand is being brought back from the
urraised end of the husk to the center
ot the ear, and q hold is gained. So
th"rt is really no loss of time, or, if
there is, it is so small that it is balano-
ed by the ear being always clean of
husk, while the man who does not strip
back the lower half of the husk occa-
sionally has to stop to pull off ribbons"
after the ear has been lifted from its
bod