Husking Pegs

July 20th, 2012 |

We found several of these little objects last week while inventorying our farm collection at Burnside Plantation.  Noted in the original donation information as “husking pegs” we decided to do a little research on these fascinatingly simple tools.  Husking pegs were used to remove the dried husk from field corn at a time when this crop was still picked and processed by hand.  Although we are not sure of an exact time period, these examples seem to be precursors to the more commonly seen mass-produced flat metal pins and gloves used through the early 1900s.

Based on the accounts we could find, the user would hold the husking pin across their palm with their middle fingers through the leather loop.  The pointed end was used to spear the husk, and the user could then pinch it between the peg and their thumb to pull the husk leaves away from the cob.  Husking could be done in the field as the corn was picked, or later as a ‘husking party’.  Some accounts mention that this was a job performed by children on late fall days in preparation for shelling and grinding the corn.

Each peg in our collections seem to have been customized to the user’s preferences.  The one pictured above is carved from bone or antler while most are made from hard wood.  The leather loops vary in size and position on the pegs.  Some pegs are perfectly round with points while others are flattened with squared tips.  Some are curved, and one is surprisingly short (perhaps to fit a child’s hand).

Mac E. Barrick wrote in his 1970 Keystone Folklore Quarterly article, “Pennsylvania Corn Knives and Husking Pegs” that, “…the husking peg, developed by the folk genius to fill a need in its technology, are almost unique among folk tools as being native [to] American[s].”

Be sure to join us this weekend at Burnside Plantation for our annual Blueberry Festival to explore more ‘unique folk tools’ and how they influenced farming in the Lehigh Valley.

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