Harvesting corn in a $300,000, eight-row combine is a solitary, highly mechanized business. Such was not always the case. Up through the late 1930s, most corn was picked not by machine, but by hand.

A corn de-silking machine, created by AZS Brusher Equipment, 821 Crooked Lane, ... The operator moistens the brushes with a garden hose, then feeds each cob, husk off, through a hole.

This article was originally published with the title “ Improved Corn Husker and Feed Cutter ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 13 No. 43 (July 1858), p. 337 doi:10.1038 ...

Nearly 4,000 people crowded the F.I. Taylor farm near New Berlin on Nov. 21, 1924, for the first Illinois State Corn Husking contest. The competition, sponsored by Prairie Farmer magazine, continue… ...

This article was originally published with the title “ Corn Husking Machine ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 12 No. 18 (January 1857), p. 137 doi:10.1038 ...

Farmers across the Midwest harvest billions of bushels of corn nowadays using giant machines called combines. But a contest keeps a more primitive corn-picking technique alive: human hands.

The Corn Husker, Sheller. Jones’ invention related to a machine for “husking, shelling, cutting up the husks, and separating them from the grain.” ...

The date is a little later then you remember — May 23, 1970 — when 4-year-old Anthony Zampell was killed in Morris Greenberg & Co.’s husking machine as it processed corn.

The Eastern Iowa Corn Huskers competition on Dec. 19, 1933, was held at the theater with the giant corn sign, of course A dozen expert huskers gathered on stage and worked feverishly to husk as ...