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.

LEFT: Corn pickers, which eliminated the need for the crop to be picked by hand, have given way to behemoth combines that can harvest 24 rows at a time. RIGHT: Birkey’s also sells drones that can ...