Alex Caliostro wrote:
>
> It's just that I remember those blisters I used to get from shelling
corn.
> But the cobs save on paper!
>
Aw shucks Alex, I did my share of that too.
The husking tool was a 20 penny spike through a leather
loop on the middle finger. Great time for philosophical discussion
as you labored through the piles of corn shucks (sometimes snow covered)
brought in from the field.
The stalks after being stripped of leaves and outer layers by the cattle
as roughage were a nuisance unless run through a chopper for feed or
bedding offer as much biomass energy as the shelled corn.
Now that old Bessie is producing 4 to 5 gallons per day and sleeping
on an air mattress while the stalks are rotting in the field.... :-)
BTW, my dad used to bring home sacks of cobs and soak them in
used crankcase oil to fuel the stoves.In retrospect I cringe at the thought of
how much crankcase oil Lead we inhaled from the smoke.
Fred
