Change may not be fast but it does happen.
This year I have heard farmers talking about the small, but well developed corn they were harvesting. In at least some of the fields, the ears had filled well but were about the size of the early Fourth of July variety of sweet corn I used to plant in my garden. The early corn tasted good but the yield was so small I eventually decided it was worth waiting for the longer maturing varieties that produced larger ears and tasted even better.
When my father sold Steckley Genetic Giant seed corn, the company promoted the size of the large ears the company’s seed produced. Dad had the big Steckley ears on display and customers sometimes brought ears of their corn in to show him.
Large Steckley ears were used in the company advertising. I still have a Steckley clock which features a big ear of corn.
Apparently big ears have not always been the goal.
The Bellelville Telescope reported in October of 1924: “W. F; Stallings, a farmer near Concordia, showed C. N. Lane, the manager of the Bossemeyer Elevator in Concordia, two monster ears of corn.
“Mr. Lane said the corn was not marketable and he would not buy it.
“Mr. Stallings said he had about 100 acres of the corn which he expected would yield 50 bushels to the acre. (that may have been a great yield then but it would not cover expenses today.)
“Lane explained he would not buy the corn because the ears were too large for the sheller to handle. It would be necessary to break the ears in two before they could be get into the sheller.”
I expect what the elevators and farmers had for corn shellers in 1924 were far different than what is available today.
About the time the Telescope published the story about the Bossemeyer company refusing to buy the large ears, a local hardware store advertised the arrival of a boxcar load of corn shellers. Included in the advertisement was a picture of a hand operated sheller. I’ve only seen those shellers used by small scale producers of pop corn and among antique farm equipment sold on clean-up farm auctions.
Today mammoth combines with corn heads pick and shell multiple rows of corn. Sixty years ago a picker-sheller combination was a rarity on area farms. Most of the corn was picked and stored on the ear until a custom shelling crew came to the farm and shelled the corn.
When I was growing up, my father still stocked corn husker’s mittens in his gasoline station store. Haven’t checked the modern Bomgaar’s store but I doubt the store stocks corn husker’s gloves. The gloves came with two thumbs and could be rotated from left to right hand and extend their wear.
I didn’t like the mittens but I never had to husk corn.
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