[AT] OT I'm getting older are you? (Really O) corn sheller

Sun Jan 31 04:51:19 PST 2010

I think they use it now for grinding feed and I believe they had a mobile 
feed grinding service back in the old days.  I have no idea if it actually 
has a sheller on it but I do need to check it out.  They are slowly going 
out of business as need for their products goes down.  They also sell sweet 
potatoes and some other stuff I think.  I predict there will be a comeback 
for services like theirs in the future.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <drupert at seanet.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2010 2:56 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] OT I'm getting older are you? (Really O) corn sheller

> Charlie,
>
> If there are any noticeable exhaust "piles" around this contraption that
> may give its' identity away ... like say a cob pile and a husk pile-
>
> Dudley>
>
>
> About 15 miles from my place there is an old man and his even older father
>> that run a small independent feed mill.
>> They have an old rig of some sort that I think is maybe a combination
>> sheller and hammer mill or grinder mounted on a 40's or 50's vintage
>> truck.
>> I can't remember now what kind of truck but I think IH.  They no longer
>> run
>> it on the road.  It sits under a shed and they use it as a stationary
>> mill.
>> I need to stop by there some day and check them out and maybe take some
>> pictures.  I bet I've passed by them 1000 times but never had a reason to
>> stop in.
>>
>> Charlie
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Beal Gleason" <farmerbeal at aol.com>
>> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group"
>> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>> Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 8:10 PM
>> Subject: Re: [AT] OT I'm getting older are you? (Really O) corn sheller
>>
>>
>>> In the early 50s we had a MM sheller mounted on Diamond T 2Ton truck.
>>> IT had a 2 speed rear axel. We rigged a block on a hinge on the vacuum
>>> shifter so we could flip over and block the axel from shifting into
>>> high gear.                                     Then then we put a 2"
>>> solid shaft in the drive line right behind the cab about 2'long
>>> mounted on 2 pillow block  bearings with a pulley mounted between
>>> them. Then we put a belt up to the pulley on the sheller with
>>> tightener so that when we got ready to shell we could flip block over,
>>> tighten the belt, shift the rear end into high an we were ready to go.
>>> We had the pulleys sized so the engine ran about 40 miles / hour when
>>> the seller was at operating speed.  When we were ready to hit the road
>>> we loosened the belt, fliped the block and we were off.
>>>
>>> WE shelled several thousand bu. corn over several years and it worked
>>> great.
>>>
>>> Farmerbeal
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jan 30, 2010, at 2:17 AM, drupert at seanet.com wrote:
>>>
>>>> ....
>>>>> We still harvested ear corn fairly late. I just saw a new ear corn
>>>>> crib going up last week.
>>>> ...>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Have you hugged your horses today?
>>>>>
>>>>> Francis Robinson
>>>>> aka "farmer"
>>>>> Central Indiana USA
>>>>> robinson46176 at gmail.com
>>>>>
>>>> The above two sentances in Farmers' response of a couple of days ago
>>>> have
>>>> reminded me of a question/curiosity that I've had for some time so,
>>>> if I
>>>> ever expect to get some answers, I better ask it.  Question:  How do
>>>> you
>>>> first remember corn being sold?
>>>>
>>>> We left the farm in Southern Illinois in 1954.  At that time, of
>>>> course,
>>>> everyone was still harvesting corn with Pickers.  The corn that was
>>>> wanted
>>>> for feed or for later sale was stored in a Crib.  The corn that was
>>>> sold
>>>> went to the Elevator on the cob.  The Elevator had a big sheller that
>>>> could handle Wagon/Truck loads as fast as they could be driven in,
>>>> lifted,
>>>> dumped, driven out and the cycle repeated.  I don't recall ever
>>>> seeing a
>>>> sheller on, or going to, a farm except for the small hand cranked jobs
>>>> used for making chicken feed.
>>>>
>>>> Now fast forward forty years.  In the early nineties I was making
>>>> frequent
>>>> trips back to the Midwest.  Across the Northern parts of Illinois and
>>>> Indiana I started noticing that many of the old Cribs were still
>>>> standing
>>>> but that they were much taller than those in Southern Illinois and
>>>> they
>>>> had a huge Cupola on top ... what/why were they so different I
>>>> wondered.
>>>> After pondering this for several years I just happened to strike up a
>>>> conversation with a farmer in Northern Indiana, maybe fifteen miles
>>>> from
>>>> the Michigan line.  His farm had one of these "tall Cribs."  He told
>>>> me
>>>> they were far more than the cribs I remembered from the Southern
>>>> part of
>>>> the state and that they were really more like the Elevator I
>>>> remembered
>>>> only on a smaller scale.  His Crib/Elevator was built in the late
>>>> thirties
>>>> from a kit that John Deere sold.  A wagon/truck could be driven down
>>>> the
>>>> center and the mechanism was there to lift the front end and dump
>>>> the corn
>>>> into a "Gutter" that then carried the corn to one side of the Aisle
>>>> where
>>>> an endless vertical roller chain with "Cups" attached carried the
>>>> corn to
>>>> the top (i.e., up in the Cupola) where a Diverter would direct the
>>>> corn to
>>>> the Crib on either side.  This farmer said that when he wanted to
>>>> sell he
>>>> would hire a custom sheller who had a ton and a half truck with a
>>>> sheller
>>>> and International engine on back.  He said he had been farming since
>>>> after
>>>> the War and had always sold his corn shelled.
>>>>
>>>> I know this is just trivia but I am curious anyway as to how corn
>>>> was sold
>>>> - back before we started getting older - to the Elevators in different
>>>> parts of the country.  For those of you whose memory does not
>>>> stretch back
>>>> to before Corn Heads/Harvesters came along and got well established
>>>> I am
>>>> sure this is "real" trivia.
>>>>
>>>> Dudley
>>>>
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