William Cooper Howells, the author of the next selection, was the father
of a famous magazine editor and novelist, William Dean Howells. The
elder Howells was taken to Ohio from England as a child and grew up on a
farm while Ohio was a new state. His memories come from _Recollections
of Life in Ohio from 1813 to 1840_.
One of the gatherings for joint work, which has totally disappeared
from the agriculture of modern times, and one that was always a jolly
kind of affair, was the cornhusking. It was a sort of harvest home in
its department, and it was the more jolly because it was a gathering
with very little respect to persons, and embraced in the invitation
men and big boys, with the understanding that no one would be
unwelcome. There was always a good supper served at the husking, and
as certainly a good appetite to eat it with. It came at a plentiful
season, when the turkeys and chickens were fat, and a fat pig was at
hand, to be flanked on the table with good bread in various forms,
turnips and potatoes from the autumn stores, apple and pumpkin pies,
good coffee and the like. And the cooking was always well done, and
all in such bountiful abundance that no one feared to eat, while many
a poor fellow was certain of a square meal by being present at a
husking. You were sure to see the laboring men of the vicinity out,
and the wives of a goodly number of farm hands would be on hand to
help in the cooking and serving at the table. The cornhusking has been
discontinued because the farmers found out that it was less trouble to
husk it in the field, direct from the stalk, than to gather in the
husk and go over it again. But in that day they did not know that much
and therefore took the original method of managing their corn crop,
which was this: as soon as the grain began to harden they would cut
the stalks off just above the ears and save these tops for fodder, and
if they had time they stripped all the blades off the stalks below the
ears, which made very nice though costly feed. Then, as barn room was
not usually over plenty, they made a kind of frame of poles, as for a
tent, and thatched it, sides and top, with the corn tops placed with
the tassel downward, so as to shed the rain and snow. This was called
the fodder-house and was built in the barnyard. Inside they would
store the blades in bundles, the husks, and the pumpkins that were
saved for use in the winter. The fodder-house was commonly made ten
feet high and as long as was necessary, and it was used up through the
winter by feeding the fodder to the cattle, beginning at the back,
which would be temporarily closed by a few bundles of the tops. It
would thus serve as a protection for what might be stored in it till
all was used up. The fodder-house was, of all things, a favorite place
for the children to hide in and play. When the season for gathering
the corn came the farmers went through the fields and pulled off the
ears and husks together, throwing them upon the ground in heaps,
whence they were hauled into the barnyard and there piled up in a neat
pile of convenient length, according to the crop, and say four or five
feet high, rising to a sharp peak from a base of about six feet. Care
was taken to make this pile of equal width and height from end to end,
so that it would be easily and fairly divided in the middle by a rail
laid upon it.
When the husking party had assembled they were all called out into
line, and two fellows, mostly ambitious boys, were chosen captains.
These then chose their men, each calling out one of the crowd
alternately, till all were chosen. Then the heap was divided, by two
judicious chaps walking solemnly along the ridge of the heap of corn,
and deciding where the dividing rail was to be laid, and, as this had
to be done by starlight or moonlight at best, it took considerable
deliberation, as the comparative solidity of the ends of the heap and
the evenness of it had to be taken into account. This done, the
captains placed a good steady man at each side of the rail, who made
it a point to work through and cut the heap in two as soon as
possible; and then the two parties fell to husking, all standing with
the heap in front of them, and throwing the husked corn on to a clear
place over the heap, and the husks behind them. From the time they
began till the corn was all husked at one end, there would be steady
work, each man husking all the corn he could, never stopping except to
take a pull at the stone jug of inspiration that passed occasionally
along the line; weak lovers of the stuff were sometimes overcome,
though it was held to be a disgraceful thing to take too much. The
captains would go up and down their lines and rally their men as if in
a battle, and the whole was an exciting affair.
As soon as one party got done, they raised a shout, and hoisting their
captain on their shoulders, carried him over to the other side with
general cheering. Then would come a little bantering talk and
explanation why the defeated party lost, and all would turn to and
husk up the remnants of the heap. All hands would then join to carry
the husks into the fodder-house. The shout at hoisting the captain was
the signal for bringing the supper on the table, and the huskers and
the supper met soon after. These gatherings often embraced forty or
fifty men. If the farmhouse was small it would be crowded, and the
supper would be managed by repeated sittings at the table. At a large
house there was less crowding and more fun, and if, as was often the
case, some occasion had been given for an assemblage of the girls of
the neighborhood, and particularly if the man that played the fiddle
should attend, after the older men had gone, there was very apt to be
a good time. There was a tradition that the boys who accidentally
husked a red ear and saved it would be entitled to a kiss from
somebody. But I never knew it to be necessary to produce a red ear to
secure a kiss where there was a disposition to give or take one.