Associated Press - Antique implement from auction helps revive old farming method

Antique implement from auction helps revive old farming method

PAINTER, Va. (AP) _ Bill Savage was given a bushel of seed corn two years ago. That single bushel has multiplied and resulted in the 36-year-old Eastern Shore native developing a passion for preserving and sharing old ways of farming.

The seed came from a variety of Indian corn grown locally for generations _ the man he acquired it from said his grandfather grew it here as far back as 1870, and it likely dates much earlier.

Savage decided to plant the heirloom seed, setting in motion a new pastime that ties together two of his loves _ history and mechanics.

``I've always had an interest in farming,'' he said, adding, ``When I found the corn, it sparked my interest in agricultural history as well. When you find one piece and then another and another, it's sort of addictive.''

Last year he planted 50 rows of the hardy Indian corn, which produces stalks up to 11 feet tall and ears up to a foot long. The ears are various shades of red, brown, yellow and sometimes even purple.

This year, Savage more than doubled his crop, planting 124 rows, which he hopes to harvest using an antique single-row corn picker he bought at a Pocomoke City auction for $600. After helping him pick 50 rows by hand last year, his wife, Laurel, ``had no problem with this purchase,'' he said.

``A smarter man would have realized just how monumental this task would be,'' Savage joked. ``I should have fed the corn to the deer, but instead I started looking for any type of corn processing equipment.''

Two years later, he is the proud owner of the picker, along with three burr mills, four corn shellers and a 1947 International Harvester water-cooled, hit-and-miss engine to run them.

It wasn't easy finding equipment used in a harvesting method that died out more than half-century ago.

``Each one of these pieces came to me out of the blue,'' he said, mostly by word of mouth when someone would recall some old machine a farmer had stored and forgotten about years ago in some outbuilding.

After a lot of work, including making some replacement parts himself, Savage has assembled a working set of equipment to pick, dry, shell and grind the vintage corn the way it was done before combines came on the scene.

The New Idea picker dates to the 1960s _ one of the last models made. His favorite mills are a 1930s era John Deere-Letz feed grinder that he uses to crack corn for his chickens and a 1915 Root-Heath ``Korn King'' burr mill, which he uses to grind corn to eat.

Savage's favorite shellers are a 1890 Black Hawk box sheller and a 1909 A. Buch's Sons two-hole sheller with an unusual feature _ a built-in shaker screen to clean the corn after it is shelled.

Even the building he stores the corn in is an antique _ a 1918 metal crib that was originally used at Hickman Lumber Co. in Painter. He obtained it for just 84 cents _ the price of postage to get written permission from the New York man who owned it to move it to Savage's farm.

His father helped restore the crib, along with his brother, Bob, and cousin, C.W. Savage Jr., who crafted replacements for six rusted-out panels and the chimney cap using only the remnants of the originals for patterns.

After picking, ears are dried in the crib for three months, then run through a sheller and the kernels put through a grinder.

Savage is experimenting with different ways to market his crop; last year he made wreaths and cornstalk bundles to sell _ and he has a notion to try selling cornmeal. The heirloom corn has a different texture and color than ordinary cornmeal and it tastes good, Savage said.

``We made some into corncakes; it was excellent, with a little bit of crispy crunch,'' he said.

But his main reason for growing, harvesting and processing the corn the way he does is to preserve its history and the history of the machines farmers used years ago.

``It would be nice to find a steady market for the corn, but until then, I am satisfied to keep on planting history,'' he said. ``The Eastern Shore is so rich in agricultural history and small farms. These farms are disappearing at an alarming rate, and I can see the day that they will all be gone.''