Thursday, October 22, 1936
- Jill Johnson Tewsley
- Oct 22, 2020
- 2 min read
MEN HUSKING CORN AND SISTERS SORTING APPLES
Nice day but cool.
Did usual work.
Ironed this evening.
Helen + Alice sorting apples
to-day. Roger staying with
us. Men are husking corn.
No school to-day and to morrow
on account of State Teachers
Institute at G.R.
Henry started digging
potatoes. Hank picking up.
In the 1930’s corn was harvested by hand. It wasn’t until after the end of WWII that mechanical corn pickers appeared on farms. Many farmers used a corn husking tool that they held or strapped onto their hand to help them get the job done. It was a difficult and arduous task.
My dad recalls helping husk corn by hand on the farm in the early forties. So, on this day in 1936, "the men" would have been working by hand to husk the corn in the fields.
Corn husking took such strength and endurance that farmers across the Midwest Corn Belt competed in state and national corn husking competitions. In 1936, Time magazine wrote, “corn husking is the fastest growing sporting spectacle in the world.”
The first “official” corn husking contest that I can find on record took place in 1922 with a recorded attendance of 11. By 1936, the national corn husking event attracted 130,000 people and was broadcast live on WLS radio.
During the 20’s to early 40’s, the competitors would husk an average of 30 bushels of corn by hand during an 80-minute period. These competitions not only captured the attention of major publications like TIME and 100,000 plus people annually, but they impacted the future of farming.
In 1998, Denise Lorraine Dial (Iowa State University) constructed her doctoral dissertation around organized corn husking competitions (1920s-30s) and their impact the use of machinery and scientific methods in farming.
“The organized com husking contests of the 1920s and 1930s facilitated the spread of scientific fanning methods and contributed to farmers' increased reliance on scientists, technicians, and agribusiness suppliers. The efforts of agricultural leaders, bolstered by the enthusiastic boosterism of midwestern towns, made the com husking contests annual composite snapshots of the growing industrialism in agriculture and rural life through this period of time. The associational relationships developed through participation in the com husking contests encouraged rural residents to adopt the values, beliefs, methods, and technology of industrial culture.” - Denise Lorraine Dial
Corn husking competitions still take place in some Midwest states across the country, although COVID-19 forced the cancellation of these events in 2020.
I found a 1937 newsreel about that year's National Corn Husking Championship. It's worth a watch if you are as intrigued as I was about corn husking.
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