Farm Question

[Wayne]

Have a question for any corn farmers out there. Read a letter a man wrote his brother in 1854. Said he was going to make 1000 Lb's to the acre in cotton or two bales to the acre, and he was going to harvest 2000 bushels of corn. My question in 1854 what would be the bushels per acre?

[IvanBlock]

Wayne I'm not really a corn farmer, (well maybe still a few acres each year) but I worked as an Agronomist doing crop research in the University of Wisconsin Experimental Farms Department for a bunch of years. Back in 1854 corn was open pollinated and the grower saved his own seed from year to year. Yield per acre stayed more or less stationary until about 1940 (15-20 bushels per acre) Around 1940 the first hybrids began to appear and the yields started going up and with more improvements in growing and harvest practices have gone well above 200 bushels per acre in many areas. Safe to say in 1854 the yield was probably about 15 bushes per acre...

[Mister Ed]

I wonder if an 1854 bushel of corn is equal to a 2018 bushel? Meaning in 1854, were they counting bushel of ear corn or bushel of shelled corn?

If ear corn ... that would male a big difference.

[IvanBlock]

Ed I would think the 1854 yield estimate would have been in cob corn as most everything then was stored in corn cribs until it was shelled as needed for feed. A bushel of dried cob corn weighs 72# and will shell out to 56# of shelled corn...

[Wayne]

Wither it was cob corn or shelled corn at 15-20 bushels per acre that would be 100-130 acres I guess. All planted,cultivated, and havested by hand and with mules.

[Bootsy]

Being from Iowa. the 15-20 bu per acre back then is correct and that would be 1000# @ 18 bu per acre.
I could not find how many # per acre cotton was in 1850s but it is less than 600# per acre in Texas today.
there are some states that raise 3-4 bales 1500-2000# today, maybe they were that good at raising cotton?

[Wayne]

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While driving down the road last Thursday I saw what looked like a round bale of cotton. SI went back Sunday to take some pictures and get a better look. Turns out it is called a round module. I know about the big square module maker but had never seen the round. Then down the road a bit setting in another cotton field was the machine that did it all. It looks like it puts everything in the module because there wasn't any debris in the harvested field.

[windybob]

My Pillow on steroids.

[Kansas Rust Buzzard]

In the old Studebaker and Peter Schutler wagon catalogs, when they give the bushel capacity of corn wagon, they always figure it as ear corn. That confuses a lot of people but really, until fairly modern times you had to pick ear corn and put it in the crib. Besides, the outhouse needed the cobs.

[Wayne]

It would seem logical. I'm thinking all corn was picked by hand in 1854. I've got a book says corn pickers didn't come into being until early 1900's. Read the other day in the diary they were gathering fodder. They had the corn hooks to strip the husk and pick the ear. Today in some area's they still have contest to see who can gather the most ears in a set time.