Corn harvesting in Delaware before combines

This photograph from the Delaware Economic Development Collection shows a Delaware farmer picking corn in the mid 20th century. This method of picking corn, before the advent of today's combines, involved a machine mounted on the front of a tractor that pulled the full ear from the stalk before sending it to a wagon pulled behind the tractor. The ears were then placed in rat-wire-lined corn cribs where the kernels dried out before shelling and sale or use as feed for hogs or chickens.

Today's combines pick the ears from the stalk, husk the ears and then strip the kernels from the cobs before depositing them in a bin mounted on the machine for later transfer, via auger and chute, into a truck. The corn is then transported to grain elevators where, as has been the case for centuries, it is sold to feed processors.