Rural Heritage April/May 2026

Seed corn is stored on dryer racks. The stovepipe in the foreground runs from a coal stove on the first story. — J.C. Allen Photo

HARVESTING AND USING THE CROP How to harvest. Corn is harvested in the following ways: 1. The whole plant is cut by hand or machines for fodder or silage. 2. The ears only are harvested, leaving the stalks standing in the field. 3. The tops are cut off just above the ears and cured for fodder. Later, the ears are harvested. 4. The leaves are stripped when still green and cured for fodder, and the ears are gathered later. By far, the greatest part of the corn crop of the United States is harvested by the first two methods. The others are practised to some extent on small farms in New England and the South. Harvesting the whole plant. Formerly, where the whole plant was harvested, it was cut by hand and shocked in the field. Later, the ears were removed by hand and the stover fed. Considerable corn is still handled in this way, but in recent years corn binders

have come into general use, especially on the larger farms. Corn is usually cut when the ears are well glazed or dented and when the husks and lower leaves have ripened. Shredding. Frequently, the fodder when well-cured and dry is run through a shredder, which removes the ears and shreds the stems and leaves, which are then stored in barns or sheds and fed as hay. Silage. Much corn is now put in the silo and fed on the farm. A silo is practically a huge can in which finely-cut corn or other green material is tightly packed and is thereby preserved. Corn is ready to cut for silage when the kernels are all glazed. Usually the best grain variety for any region planted a little thicker than usual is best for silage. Most of the crop in the main Corn Belt is still harvested by hand leaving the stalks standing in the field (machines have been built for picking corn but they are clumsy affairs and have never come

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