East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1906-12-28

To the farmers who harvest a A.
10000 bushel wheat crop in Una
tilla county each year, the problem Of
harvesting the enormous crop of the
united states must ever be a subject
OF intense interest. While the wheat
crop of the west is harvested and for
gotten early in the fall, the work of
harvesting the corn crop does not end
until late in the winter and in many
localities where labor is scarce, much
of the crop actually remains ungath-
cred during the winter.
The following interesting article
from the New York Tribune Farmer
gives some of the details of handling
the immense crop of this year in the
corn states:
Thousands of western farmers are
employing the shredder this year in
order to handle their big crops. Or
ganized shredder companies are trav-
cling along the highways from farm
to farm, hauling their outfits by the
power Of traction engines. making
stops all the way from three days to
the ears and running them into a
wagon box and blowing the husks
and leaves into capacious mows.
One of these shredders husks from
400 to 500 bushels a day. Say that
six men working by hand husk 100
bushels each at a cost of cents n
bushel 1t costs the farmer SIS a day.
and the fodder is left standing in the
hill. The shredder companies are
charging $12 day, In each case the
farmer boards the men, but in the
work of the shredder the fodder has
been ground to feed and is under
shelter. And then there must be
taken into account the cutting of the
corn and hauling it to the shredder.
The farmers are making use of all
possible resources in saving the big
crop of corn. Some are picking the
ears with the husks still on them.
They are hauled on the barn floor,
where husking bees are engaged in to
skin off the husks.
But by far the greater amount of
work is being done by hand, the husk-
ers husking the corn from the
standing stalk, swapping off the ears
and throwing them into the wagon
box.
| 1t used to be that the throw" or
bang" boards on the wagons were a
single board high. Then they got to
] be two boards. This year they tow
cred three and four boards above the
ordinary wagon box. One may see
these high boards from passing trains
when nothing else of the outfit may
be made out.
Our grandfathers husked corn by
the aid of wooden peg fastened to
the second and third finger by means
of a leather strap. In any hardware
store throughout the great corn belts
of the middle west one may find this
year all the way from 10 to 20 diff
ferent kinds of husking contrivances
Practically all of them are of metal
A good proportion are fastened tc
some kind of a glove. Some of the
gloves have not only a sharp pointed
peg. but there are number of hooks
that covered by the palm of the
hand, aid in tearing off the shuck.
There are other contrivances that
are supposed to avoid the jar to the
hand when the peg is thrust into the
ear. There is a spring accurately ad'
justed, and working on the principle
! of a buffer. OF the thousands OF
: shuckers that are engaged on the
work this year, scores complain OF
sprained wrists. This is caused by
the twist in swapping the ear from
the stalk. Under such strain thu
wrists of some of the huskers swell
and render the arm useless. In some
of the drug stores in the corn belt'
the windows are filled with display
advertising certain liniments for re
ducing such swellings.
With all of the different plans o
handling the colossal crop of this year
the work steadily is going forward.