Note 14 — Chapter IV · CORN

“Corn in old times was gathered in September. A basket was carried on the back and the corn was tossed into it over the shoulder, or the basket was set on the ground and filled. This work was done by the women. The corn having been plucked, the owner of the field notified people what food she wanted to serve—meat or boiled corn-and-beans—and young men came to husk the corn. A pile might be three or four feet high and twenty feet long. The men huskers sat on one side of the pile and the women on the other. The big ears were strung in braids. A braid was long enough to reach from the thigh around under the foot and up again to the other side of the thigh. A husker would try the newly made braid with his foot as he held the ends in his hands. Unless this was done a weak place in the string might escape notice and the braid break, and all the others would then laugh.

“Small ears were tossed into one place. Four or five women would carry off these ears in baskets; they bore the filled baskets right up the ladder to the top of the drying stage. The braided strings were often borne home on the backs of ponies, ten strings on a pony. They were hung like dead snakes on the railings above the floor of the stage to dry.

“Boys and young men went to the husking bees because of the fun to be had; they wanted to see the girls!”—Edward Goodbird (related in 1909).