Corn was harvested by hand during the 1930s and 1940s when Harlan Jabcbson was growing up on the family farm in Nebraska.         

Notice the bangboard on the back side of the wagon (top picture). It was used to stop the corn from going over the wagon. The bangboard looks to be about 12 to 20 inches high. After a person became use to picking the ear would fall to the middle of the wagon more often. Leland Klein ( second place finisher at the 1941 National Contest) talked about wasting energy if a person was always hitting the bangboard hard.
 

The man in the wagon (top picture) has finished loading his wagon and is on the way to unload. The man in the next picture is waiting to unload his wagon of corn. It was considered a luxury to have an elevator to unload corn. Most corn was scoop off. Picking a 100 bushels a day and unloading it  was common.  Notice how there are 3 , 12 inch wide, boards that make up the side of the wagon box this was called the triple box wagon.
Ear corn was stored in cribs made out of picket fence.