Barns vs. Corn Cribs

Gone For Good

Barns have been a popular topic for backroad historians for the last fifty years. Picture books about barns have been around as long as I can remember, and for the last twenty years the authors have been documenting the decay and disappearance of these landmarks. I attended a slide show and lecture about barns last year by a faculty member from the University of Iowa, and was struck by the lack of farming knowledge this historian/author had. Some of the photos displayed at this event were of corn cribs, but the lecturer knew nothing about them. Corn cribs were used for storing and drying ear corn (corn still on the cob). These buildings were used in the midwest for corn that was picked and shucked by hand, and later for corn that was harvested with tractor mounted and pull behind corn pickers. (Check out the article about picking corn at: http://www.ytmag.com/articles/artint167.htm ) The bin walls on the inside and outside of the building have gaps between the boards which allow air to move through the stored ear corn, accomplishing the drying.

Elevator; Drag broken and turned; One bucket visible

Corn cribs like the one pictured have an elevator to transport the corn into the cupola where it fell into a chute which could be turned to distribute it into the bins on either side of the drive-through. The elevator consisted of a drag which folded down behind the wagons to receive the grain, and buckets on a continuous chain drive to carry the grain upward. There was also a winch mounted on the wall which lifted the front end of wagons to dump them. All of this machinery was run by a gas engine or tractor belted to the drive mechanism at the end of the crib.

Winch

There are also two large overhead bins in the center for storing oats or soybeans. When this crib was built, the bins would have only been used for oats, as the owners at that time farmed with horses. Soybeans were not grown on this farm until this family rented out the land after they retired.

Portable Corn Sheller

The corn was shelled after it had dried. Doors along the bottom of the crib were opened in order to pull out the ear corn into drags which fed a portable corn sheller. The corn then could be used as feed on the farm, or transported to an elevator in town and sold.

Combines with corn picking heads allowed farmers to pick and shell corn in one operation, and this innovation quickly made the corn crib obsolete. It also created a new industry for building grain drying bins to be used on the farm. One of the benefits of the modern harvesting methods is that farmers are no longer losing their arms in tractor mounted corn pickers. Fifty years ago, it was common to see farmers with a metal prosthesis in place of a hand. Corn pickers had fast spinning rollers on either side of the tractor driver. These rollers separated the ears from the corn stalks. If the rollers clogged up with stalks, it was only natural for the farmer to grab the jam and pull. The trouble with that was the farmer could not let go fast enough when the jam broke loose and pulled back into the roller. These old corn pickers are an antique that needed to be phased out. I am not sorry to see them disappear into the mists. The new technology is not without its problems. One of the greatest safety hazards on the farm today is the danger of being caught and suffocated in flowing grain while emptying grain bins. You don't see suffocation victims walking around like we did with amputation victims, so a lot of families learn this lesson the hard way.