While viewing Grant Wood’s Iowa Cornfield (XROADS Has Been Archived) I got to wondering why corn isn’t stacked this way anymore? At least I’ve never seen it stacked like this.
Do they still do this? If not, why not? What was the purpose of this type of stacking?
City boy asking.
Those aren’t stacks of (cobs of) corn; those are the corn shocks, the dried cornplants after the harvest.
I’ve been doing a bit of googling on stooking. Drying does seem to be the major motivation for it. I don’t see a clear explanation for what modern process makes the drying obsolete. I would guess that the corn is mechanically dried now.
Oh no, another old-time harvest question!
This site has good info about “corn shocking”:
Nowadays corn is harvested mechanically and dried out at a grain elevator. The practice of “shocking” lives on in the quaint name of the Wichita State University Shockers.
Modern corn pickers make that style of farming obsolete. A corn picker (a specialized combine) mows down several rows at a time. The cobs are separated from the stalks, the husks are removed, and all the chopped stalks and leaves are spit out the back. Ideally, the corn is dry when picked. The moisture is checked at the granary (elevator,) and the price paid is adjusted according to moisture content. If it’s picked too moist, a farmer can use a grain dryer (sort of a big bin with a big blower at one end.)
I’m not a farmer, and I don’t know if the machine also takes the kernels off the cob.
You might find the stacks like in the painting at places like Conner Prairie, where they recreate ancient farm life. Machines are used everywhere else. Even the Amish use them, although they use a horse drawn version to make teamwork necessary. I’m not joking, here. The idea of one man harvesting a field by himself might diminish the value of family and cooperation, so the Amish don’t go completely modern. I don’t live in the Amish part of the state, but that’s how it was explained to me.
Indeed. There are plenty of Amish near me, and you can definitely see fields full of cornstalks arranged as in the OP’s link.
That is a common sight in the countryside here in Jalisco and Michoacan.
I didn’t know agave could be stooked.
Sorry. When I think of Jalisco, I think of tequila. When I think of Michoacan, I think of something else.
[sub](Ice cream of course. What were you thinking of?)[/sub]
Read it again Sam. That specifically refers to wheat, barly, rye, etc.
Not to corn which is shocked. So what’s the difference, its only a ‘o’ or a ‘c’ ? 
Yes it does. It’s quite impressive, really. A whole plant gets mowed down, the kernels get blown into a bin on top of the combine, and the stalks, leaves and chunks of cob get blown out the back.
But wheat, barley, rye etc. are corn. 
[sub]Okay, okay in Iowa they aren’t. Stooking does seem to be more appropriate for non-maize corn and shocking more appropriate for maize.[/sub]
*Okay, okay in Iowa they aren’t. :dubious: Aren’t what? Corn? Ahh, but they are in a generic or class sense. Maise is a specific one of a class ‘corn.’
The grass-like grains or corns have been harvested by conbines for a long time. Shooking was done prior to the advent of combines. When dry, loaded on flat bed horse drawn wagons to the thrashing machine to separate the grain from the straw.
The thrashing machine was a wonder but the Traction Engine was a magnificnt example of a self propelled steam engine. Steam blowing, wheels turning, fire and smoke, and a big wide belt with a half-twist, powering the thrashing machine 75 or so feet away.
They don’t farm like they did 3/4 of a century ago. 