HARVESTING AND STORAGE 



473 



5 to 6 inches long, with a string round two notches in the CHAP, 

 centre. The stick is held in the palm of the right hand with XI - 

 the point between the thumb and forefinger, the string 

 being round the middle finger ; the mealie, still on the stalk, 

 is grasped in the left hand, the point of the stick is inserted at 

 the top of the cob, the forefinger and thumb grasping the husk, 

 a sharp tug pulling half of the husk away, the remaining half 

 comes away easily, and a sharp twist detaches the cob. The 

 straw is then carted away and stacked alongside the wire 

 kraals for winter use, to be fed to the cattle at night. I cart 

 the cobs after this fashion ; the large, medium and small cobs 

 are bagged separately. The large cobs are placed at the 

 farther end of the mealie hock, the medium-size in the centre, 

 and the smaller ones near the door for immediate use. 



" I may say the above methods are the quickest I have yet 

 seen, and the natives are delighted with the pointed stick, 

 which saves their fingers considerably. I make the mealie 

 hock with wire woven with the Kitselman woven-wire fencing 

 machine. The size of mesh can be altered from mouse-proof 

 to any desired size. The hock is raised above the ground on 

 posts." 



448. Mairjc Pickers. — In the American Corn-belt, where 

 maize is the staple crop, it is grown for the ears principally. 

 "The use of the corn binder and the shocker, while quite ex- 

 tensive, does not solve the corn-harvesting problem in the 

 purely corn-raising regions, where a large share of the corn is 

 still picked by hand from the stalks as they stand in the field." 

 It is often difficult to get sufficient labour for this somewhat 

 tedious work, and for over fifty years inventors have been busy, 

 trying to perfect a machine to pick the ears from the stalks. 



Several machines have been introduced since 1902 for this 

 purpose. 



"The corn picker as now constructed, resembles the 

 corn binder in the construction of the main frame, drive wheels, 

 and dividers. It passes along the row of corn, which is 

 straddled by the dividers, and the stalks, after being righted 

 by the points, chains and other devices, pass between a pair 

 of inclined, corrugated rollers that snap or strip off the ears. 

 The rollers are so placed that the ears fall naturally into a 

 trough that extends along beside them. In order to provide 

 snapping rollers to remove the ears and force them to fall 



