Corn Crib

     This corncrib dates to about 1860 and originated in New York. It is a large corncrib, reflecting the growing use of corn as a crop for livestock feed. It is now a part of a working early Texas homestead at Homestead Heritage in Waco, TX.

     The first recorded mention of a corncrib is in an almanac for the year 1701. At that early date the crib was a square of alternately cross logs with a slanted roof over it. Toward the end of the 1700’s corn began to be grown in larger quantities and the American corncrib underwent a series of changes that reflected the growing importance of corn as a crop.
     The biggest challenges to storing corn were to keep it dry and rodent-free. The innovation of overhanging the eaves and slanting the side walls outward helped keep the cobs dry by shedding rain away from the exposed side walls that were usually just horizontal or vertical slats with openings for air to circulate through.
      Rodents were kept out of the crib by raising the crib up on posts and then setting metal pie plates on top of them to keep the rodents from climbing up the posts.