Abstract

A corn harvester has a chassis adapted to travel along the ground and provided on its front with an intake mechanism for picking ears off the cornstalks and for reducing these ears to fragments including pieces of cob, corn kernels, and pieces of husk. These fragments are displaced backwardly onto a ridged floor having a rear edge spaced by an upstream gap from a riddle having in turn a rear edge spaced upwardly by a downstream gap from a comb. A blower directs a current of air through these gaps to separate out the chaff-like husk pieces, while the smaller and denser fragments can drop through the riddle and be collected. Both the riddle and the floor are oscillated to displace the fragments backwardly. A second comb meshes with the first comb and has a plurality of tines that are continuously displaced through the tines of the first comb to separate out husk pieces from the fragments on the first comb. Thus only the corn kernels and pieces of cob will pass through the riddle or the first comb whereas the husk pieces will be separated out.