Iowa........ corn

something in the news about an iowa corn rake
I googled it
now I know
about iowa corn and what the bent hay fork is

guy used it to kill his better half, and he was not able talk his way out of it, gets life. they were use to help move ear corn back in the day, used one a lot when ran corn sheller

Back in the "olden days" corn was picked on the ear and stored in a corn crib. There were spaces between the side boards on the crib, or in a snow fence ring so air could move through and ventilate and dry the corn.

As the corn settled the ears would wedge together. A corn rake was used to pull the ears down out of the pile when taking it from the crib.

A "store bought" rake looked like a 4 tine pitch fork with tines bent over 90 degrees. A lot of home made styles were adapted.

My dad did a lot of corn shelling for neighbors back in the 50's and 60's and always carried a couple or rakes and scoop shovels on the sheller.

This was in the paper----

Used to run a corn rake back in the 60's on a corn shelling crew. I did manage to get some Rats with it. The things we do at 15 when we need money!

That same bent fork was used to pull silage out of the "False Front" forage wagons into the forage blower trough as the "False Front" of the wagon was drawn to the rear by cables attached to a roller rod at the rear of the wagon that was driven by a racket gear on the forage blower. We had three of these forage wagons that were used from the early 1950s until early 1970s when we bought self-unloading wagons and a new JD PTO driven forage blower with a hopper. The previous forge blower had been an early 1950s NH belt driven with about a 10ft trough that you raised up the trough drive past with the wagon, lower trough, back the wagon up about 1 ft so back of wagon is over the trough, connect the PTO like shaft to the roller that rolled up the cables that winched the "False Front" of the wagon to the rear, start the blower a get it up to speed and then open the rear door of the wagon and prop the door open and engage the ratchet that would turn the roller to wind the cables around it and the Operator would use one of those bent forks to drag the silage out of the wagon to keep it feeding evenly into the blower. In the mid 1960s the NH forage blower was replaced by an IH forage blower but still belt driven. Back in the days when neighbors would all work together at threshing and silage chopping.

See old pictures from about 1972 below, me chopping corn with IH 454 and IH #16 chopper into "False Front" silage wagon, Dad and neighbor unloading corn into IH forage blower with bent forks.
I believe the following year we bought two self-unloading wagons and a JD PTO driven forage blower.

One was used for corn silage now that it was mentioned, but I was 5 when we quit with silage so I don?t remember much and was t allowed around.

Ran corn hooks until the mid 2000s here, and still use one for a load or two of ear corn. Have 3-5 hanging in the old corn crib I forget how many we have.

Paul

Just old enough to have cut some blisters on those. Still have 2 of them hanging in the shed.

BTDT, Jim! ....although as kids we usually had to tramp the silo.

Ben

I always liked those little IH choppers. Dad had a 350 which is the same as a 16 with just some added sheet metal. The overrunning clutch dogs would tick for a long time after you shut it down. They really hummed when wound up. Tom

The fellow in question killed his wife with one. I know him an have sold his Dad and brother machinery. Sad thing to happen. I really feel sorry for the children and the extended families. They had 3 cchildren and they are not too old. So they lost Mom and Dad over this.

We used those bent forks to regulate flow of silage and ear corn into tip down blower and elevator hoppers. Our wagons were pto driven with apron clutch by rear swing up door. Had my only pto accident stepping over unshielded rotating shaft while still in grade school. Lost my jeans and bottom half of shirt without getting hurt because I wasn't wearing a belt.

My Dad bought one of the first IH #15 in about 1956. The IH Block Man spent a lot of time having it fixed the first fall, mostly problems with the gathering chains on the row crop head and the sealed bearings failing after corn juice leaked into them and destroyed the lubricant. On the early #15s only the upper gathering chain had a method to tighten the chain. The bottom and middle chain you were supposed to wait until it became loose enough to remove a link and install a special half link before the chains would become loose enough to put the special link in they would jump off the front sprocket and jamb and sometimes before the slip clutch would slip the gathering chain would break and end up going thru the cutter head ruining the cutter head knives and a load of silage. IH was very good they replaced all the parts free but my Dad had about a dozen custom jobs to be done and could not afford the down time. So about half way thru his custom jobs IH Block Man called one evening and said bring your pickup to the IH Dealer and we will give you an update kit. The update kit was a complete new row crop unit with gathering chain tighteners on all chains, grease zerks on some critical bearings, more support for bearings on some shafts, new bearings and mounts with grease zerks for cutter head and a corn break over attachment that my Dad had been complaining to the Block Man about the lack of as his old NH had one.

We spent a whole rainy day in the barn floor installing all the new parts and it was a good machine after that. Dad traded for an IH #16 in about 1962/63 and used it for about 10 years with very little problem other than normal ware parts.

Lots of good mechanic training for me!!!

JimB

Ben, we did the tramping and leveling as well when I was younger.

Jim

We always called those a hook fork, and used them to unload chopped hay into the blower that filled the barn. Then also used to pull down the loose hay in the barn to feed it. I never knew they were made for ear corn, but it makes a lot of sense.

(quoted from post at 20:42:01 09/24/19) We always called those a hook fork, and used them to unload chopped hay into the blower that filled the barn. Then also used to pull down the loose hay in the barn to feed it. I never knew they were made for ear corn, but it makes a lot of sense.

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We also used them for chopped hay when I was young. Dad always made a distinction between a hay hook and a corn hook. I think perhaps the one for corn was a little heavier gauge.