City - Potomac river State - VIRGINIA Country - United States
About
Teunis was correct about Item #1. Those are hobbles to hold the rear legs of a cow while milking to avoid being kicked.
He was wrong about item #2 however. That item needs a bit more explaining. Before automation farmers harvested the corn from the field by hand. As horses pulled a wagon through the field, the ears were picked off of the stalks and tossed into the wagon. To remove the husks from the ears of corn a "hook" was worn on the hand. The hook pulled the husks apart so the fingers could reach inside and extract the ear of corn. In use, mittens or gloves were worn under the hook to protect the fingers but I did not have any to show here. Because mittens wore out rapidly, they were made reversible with two thumbs so they could be turned over when one side was worn through. It was a very labor intensive job that was usually done in cold weather, often most of the winter.
As additional information, a man skilled at harvesting in this manner could gather about 10 bushels of corn an hour. That is about 1,000 ears of corn each hour or one ear every 3 or 4 seconds. I was never proficient at this task and settled for about 6 or 7 bushels per hour. The goal among most men was to harvest 100 bushels a day. The horses were trained to move through the field at the same rate you walked.
Oh yes, Gabrielle, your guess was wrong also, but I do like your thinking.
I hope some of you were intertained by my little test. I realize this is a photo site and not a game site. Thanks for playing along. Del.
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