Tobacco farming the old way.

[poppy]

Here's some pics. that I took on the way home from the farm.  Some folks still do it the old way.




Probably needed a little closer shot, but here are tobacco sticks full of speared stocks waiting to be picked up and hung in the barn for curing.




The same farm with the tobacco patches on the bottom land in the background.




Tobacco hanging in a barn on another farm.


Also passed a farm where they were baling hay the old way, in square bales instead of the more popular big round ones.  Didn't have time to stop and take another pic.

These examples show exactly how it was done when I was a pup in the 1950's.

[bayview]

   I saw on the news the other day that some people are growing their own tobacco, for their own consumption.  With cigarettes at $6.00 per pack, you can grow your own for about 30 cents a pack.  Maybe, even better for you. . . 

   I always got an invite to the ex-inlaws during hay baleing . . . 90 lb bales . . .


/

[peternap]

This is tobacco country here.

There are literally thousands of old tobacco barns in the area. 

[Redoverfarm]

Peter theres your tin to cover your sawed wood. . 

[peternap]

Already got some John.

I've been thinking about buying a couple of these old tobacco barns for years. Would make great out building and the smoke seems to have preserved them.

[Redoverfarm]

Yes they are neat Peter.  I would like to come across some of the drying poles to use for handrails. 

[Mike 870]

Does anyone one know why in real estate listings you sometimes come across a blurb that says something to the effect:  "Property was previously used to raise tobacco." ?

[Redoverfarm]

Might have something to do with contaminated soil such as pesticides and the like. 

[MountainDon]

With the way people may sue at the drop of a hat it simply might be one in the interests of full disclosure and heading off future legal problems. Could very well be about the use of chemicals, but that would be common to most agricultural properties, I think.

[Mike 870]

Both those suggestions make sense.  I was wondering if tobacco is particularly tough on the soil or something. 

[poppy]

Mike, I think you are closer to being correct.

I'm not aware of any chemicals other than fertilizer being used to grow tobacco, unless things have changed.  It is naturaly resistant to insects.

I was taught on the farm that soil would be depleted of nitrogen and other nutrients by growing tobacco, so crop rotation was normally used in addition to fertilizer treatments.

They may just be revealing tobacco growing as a CYA for depleted soil that may not easily support other farming.

My little farm was a tobacco growing farm and I'm not concerned about where the cancer plants were grown. 

[rick91351]

One reason might be tobacco mosaic disease.  Not only does it affect tobacco but tomatoes, and sugar beets as well.  Seems tobacco mosaic virus has spread to many places that does not grow tobacco.  Here in Idaho extension agents caution even smoking in the vicinity of tomatoes.  And never toss a cigarette butt on the ground.  Some verities of tomatoes are very susceptible.  The Snake River Plain of southern Idaho yields huge crops of sugar beets they to are affected by this virus as well.  However I don't know to the degree of tomatoes.  Doing a little research on this question I also found that tobacco is very hardy but seems to be attacked by a few insects i.e. tobacco worms, and a few other pests and a whole host of molds and virus.  By the way it is also reported that tobacco farming is very heavy in the balance of Ag chemicals which mostly deal with virus and molds and will remain in the soil for some time.  All the above most likely rate a warning. 

I could not dig up a real answer to the question.  Any real estate salespeople from the tobacco growing states out there?       

[Don_P]

I enjoyed Poppy's pictures of burley tobacco farming. Peternap's tobacco barn is more from my upbringing, flue cured bright leaf. "Bright Leaf" is southern coastal plain tobacco. The bright leaf was gentics but also the result of careful nitrogen application. As the leaves become nitrogen starved just as they mature the intensified bright yellow moves up the plant from the lower leaves up to the top of the plant. Harvest, or "priming" the tobacco involves several trips through the field, harvesting the lower bright leaves, then the middle then the upper leaves as they turn color. The soil is left pretty thoroughly depleted of nitrogen at that point. Raising tobacco on tobacco is tough on the soil, and this was done for generations. In the past the tobacco allotment was often sold with the property and could be used or rented, it had to be exercised or was lost. It was valuable. I believe those subsidies are all gone now. I would imagine the realtor's declaration is due to the use of pesticides though.

During my Dad's time tobacco was something grown with a great deal of pride, it was treated like many folks care for their grapes on some of those farms now, it was a craft. They would stockpile wood during the year while clearing new ground. The tobacco was harvested, looped on sticks and hung in the barn. The burners were lit and the heat was ducted into the base of the barn, look in the center of the stone wall in Peter's pic, there is a flue sticking out. The farmer babysat that fire 24/7 until the crop was ready. He then took it down, unstrung it onto "sheets" of burlap and then set those under the packhouse in a cellar overnight to regain just the right amount of moisture to become pliable again. The sheets were pulled out and a dozen leaves at a time were smoothed and tied with another carefully folded leaf into a "hand". The leaves were well cared for, were not torn or damaged. These were stacked neatly back onto a basket. Those were carefully stacked onto the truck and the farmer headed for the tobacco auction. The farmer arranged his crop in the long lines with everyone else's ready for inspection. The auctioneer and buyers from the big companies would walk down the rows, dig into the pile, picking out, examining, feeling and smelling a hand or two from each bundle and bidding. Within a minute the farmer knew whether he did good and could stop on the way home to buy shoes, jeans and a little sack of penny candy.

This is a neat read;
http://www.inseason.com/baskets/tobaccobasket.html