Hanky-panky at the Husking Bee :-)

"Let none refuse, for joy shall be High-priestess to the husking bee."(1)

Many hands make work light.  The husking bee was a fine example of how many hands do indeed make work light, and light hearted!  This delightful Northrup, Braslan and Goodwin catalog cover from 1894 shows a romantic view of a custom that at that time was already beginning to be considered old-fashioned.

I find myself using that old saying in art class at clean up time as little kids understand it... after a little prompting :-)    [I found these translations that interest the kids.  Abema hamoi basindika eitara. (Haya - spoken in an area of Tanzania);     Mikono mingi kazi haba. (Swahili - spoken in Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Rwanda and Burundi, Somalia, and the Comoro Islands)]

Husking corn is the process of removing the leafy covering - the husk - from the ears to allow them to dry more easily.  Finding a red ear was an excuse for some merriment.  In Maryland the tradition of husking before the fine dinner kept hands flying, with the added treat of finding a red ear allowing a young person to give a girl or a boy of their choice a kiss!  The husking bee was a wilder affair in the earlier 1800's as you shall read below!

A much more jaundiced view of the husking bee from the wild days of the earlier 1800s is disclosed below!

"The Husking, which prevails throughout New England only, is brought about in this way. After the maize, or Indian wheat, is gathered into the barn, the farmer, to whom it belongs, puts a good face on the matter; sends round among all his neighbours; and gives them notice, that he is ready to " shell out;" or, in other words, to undergo a husking. The meaning of which message is; that, as he cannot help himself; on such,or such a night, he will permit all the " fellers" and "gals" to tumble and roll about, in his barn, all night long, if they please; eat his pumpkin pies; drink his cider, and waste his apples; under pretense of husking corn. 

When the practice began, it was an act of neighbourly kindness; a piece of downright labour, done for nothing. It is now, a wicked and foolish frolick,  at another man's expense. Then, it was a favour, which the owner of the corn went about asking of others; it is now a heavy tax, which he would escape, if he could. That, which they are wanted for, is — to tear off the long green coats, from the ear; leaving two or three in some cases; whereby a large number of ears, when they are stripped, may be braided strongly together.  That, which they do, is quite another affair.  Instead of husking the corn, they husk the owner; trample on the product while they toil; and push one another about; sometimes to the squalling of a bad fiddle."

Brother Jonathan: Or, The New Englanders, Volume 1 - 1825

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Not that folks weren't trying to make a mechanical husker!

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AN ENGLISH WORKMAN IN AMERICA

 Letter VIII—Husking Indian Corn By Machinery

To The Editor Of Engineering

Sir,—Indian corn supplies in the United States the place of oats, barley, wurzel, &c, as a winter food in England.  The States of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, produce annually millions of bushels, the husking (stripping off the inner leaves which closely envelop the ear) of which is performed by hand, this being a most tedious and laborious operation. The attention of the agricultural mechanical world has long been directed to the performing of this husking by machinery, and its successful performance by an effectual and reasonably cheap machine, to be run by either hand or horse power, would produce results of the greatest magnitude, by enabling the farmer to husk his corn as rapidly as he thrashes his wheat, and send it to market in large quantities (an impossibility under hand husking). 

There can be no doubt that its immense productiveness, and the large profit derived from its culture, combined with its superior qualities as a winter food, it will take a prominent place, if not the lead, in American exports, so soon as the introduction of perfect machines shall render it possible to "husk" rapidly and in large quantities. Nearly all attempts at husking machines have been in a similar direction, namely, that of picking the ears from the stalks by passing them through revolving fluted rollers, which pass through the stalks and long leaves, but eject and pinch off the ears, leaving them closely enveloped by the leaves or busk, which have then to be stripped (husked) off by passing over or along revolving rubber rollers, whose friction catches the husk and strips it off. 

The passage of the corn over or along the rollers is accomplished solely by sloping them; the corn slides down an inclined plane from the picking to the husking rollers, and thence along them, the presumption being that during their passage the rubber rollers will strip the husk off. The principal objections to all such machines are that the friction of the rubber is not sufficient to strip off all the husk, especially if the corn is damp. That there is no regularity of feed, hence the machine frequently chokes; that the rubber rollers wear out by elongation; that the feed depending solely on gravitation, the ears often get "lodged in the machine, one ear overriding the other. 

The engraving, above, is of the National Husker Company's patent, made by James A. Robinson, Esq., of 164, Duane-street, in New York; it possesses the great advantage of a positive feed, and presses the corn to the husking rollers, thus facilitating the operation of husking...

...There can be little doubt that this is the most perfect husker yet introduced. Every year produces some twenty patent husking machines and devices; every agricultural fair has them on exhibition, where they generally undergo successful trials, but these machines generally prove unequal to the task of husking all kinds and conditions of corn. There are many difficulties to contend with; the corn from one field will husk readily in a machine that totally fails to husk the corn from the next field; damp com will scarcely husk at all in one machine, and husks readily in another, although there is no perceptible difference in them; some corn will shell off the cob in husking, and thus waste; others will not shell; the same com will husk better one day than the next. So many corn buskers have been tried and met with only partial success, that the farmers look with suspicion on anything of the kind, and begin to pooh pooh the entire thing as an impossibility. Tet inventors persevere, knowing that there is an immense fortune in store for the inventor of a perfect husker. Mr. Robinson expects to place his machine before the agricultural world in such a state of perfection that next autumn will convince the most sceptical  of the success of husking machines, under any conditions of trial. He has devoted years of experiment and a large sum of money to this object, and there is reasonable ground to expect that from the near approach of his machine to perfection, with the improvements to be introduced this summer, he will reap his reward by the general introduction of his husker into practical use. 

Links:

A fine collection of memories about husking are here at the Farm Collector site.