Cornhusking and Other Terms

T HE NATIONAL cornhusking matches which thousands have attended as spectators each autumn of recent years have made nearly every American familiar with various cornhusking terms.' 'Husking,' that is, pulling the ripe ear from its covering of dried shucks on the stalk, in western Nebraska and South Dakota is sometimes called snapping or picking as well as husking. Boys from Missouri farms have told me that they also call it peeling and shucking. Usage evidently differs from one locality to another, for 'snapping' to some farmers in western Nebraska means breaking the ear from the stalk but not husking or stripping the sheath from the ear.2 'Shucking' may also refer to either of these operations. The small metal instrument used by the cornhusker to aid him in stripping the shuck from the ear is called a husking peg, pin, or hook. Sometimes the device is incorporated in a husking glove or mitt; sometimes it is separate and worn on the bare hand. A contest reported by the Lincoln, Nebraska, State Journal, December 16, 1883, 6/4, was much like our contemporary matches, although the gallery was not so large. The husking was done in the field. [The winner] commenced at 7 o'clock and in two hours and 12 minutes he had

Linguistics · American Environmental and Regional History · Philosophy