[AT] Tobacco harvesting

[Larry D. Goss]

Charlie -- Spencer -- What you're saying in this thread kind of
surprises me.  Maybe it shouldn't.  For heaven's sake, I'm not exactly
"in the loop" on tobacco farming.  I never did it, I've only watched it.
But I still see the old style barns being used in western Kentucky with
the tiers of sticks arranged all the way from the roof to the ground and
with the tall slender doors along all sides to let air circulate.  Most
of them are painted black, and they don't even say, "See Rock City."
:-)

But I am probably located on the fringe of the growing area and they may
be growing a special variety where they can still afford to do it the
old-fashioned way.  

FWIW, I have a distant cousin who owns and lives on an antebellum
plantation on Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.  When I visited with him
several years ago, he was in the process of "preserving" the tobacco
barn that's out behind the house.  It has not been modified and still
has all the notches in place on the beams and he still has a large
collection of sticks to fit.  The only strange thing about it is that
it's painted white.

Larry 

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Spencer Yost
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 7:32 AM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: [AT] Tobacco harvesting

>Hi gang,   I don't know where the construction of that sentence above
came

>from.  I can't believe I actually wrote it that way.

Hey Charlie,

I didn't even notice it when I quoted it.   You probably could have kept
quiet and no one would have been the wiser (-;

>I can't imagine tobacco stalks being used as sticks.  They must have
saved

>them from the previous years crop and dried them.   Burley tobacco is
(or 
>was ) generally havested all at one time by cutting the stalk off with
the

>leaves still attached ( I think I'm correct about that).  Flue cured
>tobacco  

No, they picked it the same way, and I am sure the sticks were left over
from the previous year.  They didn't cut the stalk with the leaves.

My source for the tobacco sticks story was my neighbor, who died this
past
spring and raised tobacco and other crops on my property in the barns
and
buildings that I now own(or I at least own the foundations that are left
(-; ).  Another great source of information gone.  He was my haying
buddy
and helped tremendously,  As to the sticks, I am quite sure because he
mentioned it on several occasions.  I couldn't tell you the details as
to
how he did it, though I am left with the impression there was another
set
of small poles that latter evolved into dimension lumber (and what I
think
others are calling lathes) that crossed the tier poles.  The sticks, or
stringers, sat on these and therefore the distance was smaller.

Again though, his story was the sticks were abandoned and stringers were
used solely by WWII/1950s.  Also, I have heard the stick thing from
others.
 I'll ask around and see if I got my facts straight.

Spencer Yost
Owner, ATIS
Plow the Net!
http://www.atis.net

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