Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-10-23
CORN HUskING THEN AND NOM

From Z to 10 cents a bushel FOL
hUsking corn! Say, you old, old corn
! husker Of ancient days, doesn't tina
make your mouth water?
Going away back to boyhood 20,
Will recall the days when YOU picked
the down row tor stipend of 50 cents
! day while two husky huskers took
two rows apiece on either side of the
wagon. 1t was back breaking work
The horses dragged of ears from, eaci
side and everything that lay on tho
down row belonged 70 the down row
and its slave. Some OF them even
ruled tina: hills fallen down so thai
the wheel passed over them Belongs;
in the down row. The down TOW was
10 all intents and purposes row and
a half Nevertheless those grownups
on each side Kept clucsins ST sht
horses and driving the wagon away
from you and your struggles TO Keep
Up. !. was = Digs life picking the
down row"
Then you remember when Won made
one Of crew OF Ave each carrying q
row. two men On each side and one o-l
the "dowa -ow", taking regular ts2-ns
at the down row, One man ',saoveled
Off and was supposed 10 be back
with an empty wagon by the time tho
crew had filed another. In she earlier
days the shoveler had no patent end
date. In the earliest he took out the
permanent ezdgate and started after
having dropped about one-fou-th Of
his load on the ground 20 be picked UP
and thrown in the crib by hand Later
somebody discovered the scoop board .
wide board with q clea1 nailed on ih=
end which prevented Il slipping dowa
into the bottom OF the box and which
gave him chance TO shovel down
along the board until the bottom Q:
the wagon bed was reached
Then somebody discovered that one
man with one wagon husking two rows
on one side Of the wagon could husk
about twice what one man working
with four others could do. Then the
amounts husked began to grow. Side
boards went on. A twenty-five bushel
load became thirty bushels. Later the
thirty bushel load became thirty-tive
and by that time somebody had husked
hundred bushels in day. Since
then the 100 bushel husker has become
so common as to be practically stand
ard.
Wages in that five-man team ran
at their highest to s1.25 per day. And
day was a day then. If you have
never gone out in the dark OF crisp
November morning after a o'clock
breakfast and shivered beside the
frosty stalks waiting for it to get light
enough to see the ears you missed
something your fathers knew with reg
ularity. Talk about sun worshipers.
everybody Hd!leu 'tile IiStIiS sun iiHN
an Aztec in those days.
Two cents a bushel and board was
the beginning which has ended with s
and 10 cents offered. Along in the
later November somebody who feared
a snowfall might jump the price to
21s13 but 2G2H was standard open
ing, high and close. t
The bushel price forced itself. AS
huskers developed, the old standard Oh
fifty bushels for a days work got on
the nerves of the corn owner. He saw
the hired man come in and unhitch
at half past or o'clock and it hurt
him where he lived. This hired man
might haste to town after his last
load was off but the proprietor knew
he'd be back TO supper. So he offered
bushel prices That cost little more
but it got in the corn and what it cost
in cash he saved in time and board.
OF course the 2ts cent picker husked
% to IS cent corn. That's to be given
consideration. He bought overalls at
so cents ami niis;;.i;.s g:oEas . saHd
calf skin garnished with grabhooks for
Is cents a pair. He could find board
and room in town at SO to $3.50 a week
after the husking season was over or
he could work for his board with some
farmer. That meant doing the horse
chores and perhaps carrying to corn to
a load Of feeding cattle.
My son things were vastly different
when your father husked corn for 2As