Harvesting corn in a $300,000, eight-row combine is a solitary, highly mechanized business. Such was not always the case. Up through the late 1930s, most corn was picked not by machine, but by hand.

Here’s a story of the joy a farmer had when he got a new corn picker after World War II… and of where the few bucks to pay for it were hidden. The story comes from Gary Swensen, Yankton, S.D. “During ...