18 



BULLETIlsT 814, U. S, DEPAETMENT OF AGRICULTUKE. 



Table XVII gives the daily duty of one man when husking from 

 the standing stalk, with corn of different yields. The average of 

 529 reports on this operation shows 81.3 bushels, or 1.67 acres, as a 

 day's work. The number of bushels husked per day increases with 

 the yield, but not in proportion to it. One man husks on an average 

 9 bushels more per day in corn yielding 60 bushels per acre than in 

 corn yielding under 45 bushels, but covers four-tenths of an acre less 

 ground. The individual estimates range from 50 to 100 bushels, 

 but over 200 of the 529 men reporting gave 80 bushels as an average 

 day's work. ^ 



Fig. 8. — The meclianical picker increases the efficiency of man labor about 35 per cent, 

 as compared with hand husking, but decreases slightly the efficiency of horse labor. 



In this locality a bushel of ear corn is understood to consist of 

 enough ears to make a bushel of shelled corn, the volume of a bushel 

 of ear corn being approximately twice that of a bushel of shelled 

 corn. 



About one-tenth of the men reported the use of mechanical pickers 

 for husking corn from the standing stalk. (See fig. 8.) Five or 

 six horses are used to draw the machine, and, from one to four men 

 and teams were employed in hauling the corn from the field to the 

 crib. The number of men and teams used for hauling the corn de- 

 pends to a large extent upon the distance from the field to the crib 

 and whether or not a portable elevator is used for unloading. Their 

 crews are usually so arranged that the amount of corn husked and 



