“PUTTING OUT” A CROP OF TOBACCO

For most tobacco farmers until the 1960s, their tobacco crop was the only way to get cash. No matter how self-reliant in providing food and shelter, the farmer still needed a crop bringing in money for essentials – shoes, some clothes, and perhaps schooling for his children.

Before tobacco farming became mechanized in the 1960s, labor was its biggest cost component.  And if the farmer’s children could supply “free” labor, the profit of an acre of tobacco would double, from $800 to $1,600. Of course, on these farms, nobody ever heard of child labor laws.

VIVID MEMORIES

Most of the people who worked the tobacco fields before the advent of machinery are now in their 70s or older.  But every man or woman, when they describe their experience, recalls the grueling manual labor, the stifling heat, and the tobacco gum that covered their arms and clothes.  They say that the experience shaped their attitude toward work and cooperation to accomplish a goal. But they also say that the day they finally left the field, usually after high school graduation, they vowed never to set foot in a tobacco field again, ever! (For personal reflections see Three Women Remember Tobacco Farming – Gaye Hoots, Nancy Heafner.)

I recently had a book signing in Fernandina Beach at Donna and Mark Kaufman’s Story and Song Book Store. An attendee talked about tobacco farming.  He was a ‘poster child’ for the tobacco experience, one of ten siblings who worked on their tobacco farm in South Georgia. The summer afternoon temperature was in the 90s, and so was the humidity. When a barn of tobacco was “cured,” he was up at 4:00am to climb to the top of the barn and hand down the sticks of golden tobacco.  Then at daylight, he spent the rest of the day pulling leaves to fill the barn for the next curing.  While city children complained about going back to school, he was happy to return.

THIRTEEN MONTH CROP

Tobacco was the “thirteen-month” crop. Equipment and technology have made the work easier, but it is still demanding. The methods described below were little changed for the first 350 years, until about 1960. Here is a short course on growing tobacco:

(American Leaf – Tobacco’s Last Harvest video offers a glimpse into a past way of life more clearly than words. Relevant video time markers are inserted.)

Cutting firewood: In the fall, the farmer cuts wood that will fire his curing process next year.

Making a Seed Bed: In early spring, a field of “new ground,” a small area cleared of trees and roots, is prepared. Seeds are sprinkled on the ground, and young sprouts soon appear. A light muslin cloth protects the tender plants from late frosts. (8:43)

Planting: When the seeds grow into seedling plants, they are taken to the field and planted about eighteen inches apart, one at a time, in rows. Farmers originally used a wooden peg to make a hole for the plant. The hand-carried metal tobacco planter reduced the backbreaking stooping and standing. (10.04)

Hoeing: The field rows are hoed by hand to rid them of weeds.

Topping: A bloom at the top of the mature plant is snapped off to keep the stalk from growing higher and robbing nutrition from the leaves. (12.10)

Suckering: Small sprouts called “suckers” develop on the tobacco stalk. They take nourishment from the leaves and are broken off by hand. (11.47)

Worming: The ugly tobacco hornworm is roughly the size of an adult’s finger, bright green with white diagonal slash lines and a yellow horn. It can devour a tobacco leaf in an unbelievably short time and must be picked off the plant by hand.

Priming: Harvesting is called “priming” or “pulling.” Workers pick the mature tobacco leaves from the stalk by hand, snapping off one leaf at a time and putting them in a tobacco sled (15.49), usually pulled by a mule (9.23), between the tobacco rows. The harvest starts with ripe lower leaves. It takes three or four “primings,” perhaps a week apart, to bring in the whole crop. (14.25)

Stringing: The mule pulls the tobacco sled to a shady place near the tobacco barn (24:23) for “tying,” which involves stringing leaves of tobacco along a tobacco stick positioned horizontally. The leaves are tied with string in bunches of tobacco called “hands.” The handers, often children, reach in the sled and pull out a “hand” of three or four leaves, bunch them together at the top and hand them to the stringer to put on the tobacco stick. (16:15) The process uses a string that is looped around the top of each hand of tobacco with the leaves hung on alternate sides of the tobacco stick. The hands of tobacco hang vertically from the stick. (16.19) Women usually do the tying because they are faster than men.

Hanging a barn: Men carry the sticks of tobacco into the barn and hand them up to other men in the top of the barn who position the sticks on tier poles. When filled, the barn has rows of the tobacco sticks running across the width of the barn, with several tiers hanging from top to bottom. The sticks are far enough apart to allow heat to reach all the hanging leaves in the curing process. (24.54)

Flue curing: Wood fire in fireplace openings on each side of the barn front (24:13) heats steel pipes, or “flues,” laid throughout the barn on the ground. The heating or “curing” takes three or four days with temperatures reaching up to 160°F. The cured leaves turn a bright gold. (25:27)

Packing: The cured tobacco is placed in a packhouse and exposed to moisture to make the dry leaves pliable. (11.16)

Sorting or grading: The tobacco is graded for quality (26.00). It is made attractive by taking a “hand” of three or four leaves and wrapping another leaf around their tops. The tobacco is now ready for sale. (42.38)  [The sale was a unique auction process to be covered in a later post.]  

LASTING IMPACT

The involvement of entire families in a tobacco crop has given way to mechanization. Tobacco farm life had its own social customs and culture that have disappeared. Most of these people never thought about how tobacco shaped their life, but many have accomplishments in business, medicine, and the arts. They may not relate this to their tobacco connection, but I hear the pride in their voice when they talk about “the old days.”

“Ease does not build character.  Adversity builds character.”