[AT] Tobacco harvesting

[charlie hill]

Spencer it is probably just a regional  difference in the way it was done. 
Farmers were frugal and did things either the only way they could or the 
most cost effective way.   I'm quite sure the wooden tobacco sticks used 
here went way back to the early 1900's as my father and grand father were 
both  tobacco farmers and things like sticks were preserved and used over 
and over for many years until they broke.  As long as they were kept dry 
they would last for ever.
The interesting thing about the old ones is that once they get wet they are 
ruined in a matter of a few days.

As I said earlier, I still have some hand split sticks made by splitting 
heart pine with the grain.  They are very irregular in shape and I suspect 
would be valuable now to the right people.   By the time I came along in the 
in 1950 folks already had lathe mills set up to make tobacco sticks (or 
lathe as you said they just didn't call them that around here).  So the hand 
split ones would have been from no later than the 1930's I suspect.

I had to come back home because I had an axle bearing go out in my pickup 
this morning.  I need to make a trip of about 150 miles today with about 800 
lbs in the bed for part of the trip.  The way that bearing is roaring  it 
will never make it.  I've tried to rent a pickup and none of  the local car 
rental places have one.  None of the local mechanics can get to my truck 
today either.  That leaves me with fixing it myself I guess.  While I was in 
the middle of writing this my neighbor stopped by and he's offered the use 
of his truck if he can change his appointments for this afternoon.  I guess 
that will get me out of a bind as the material I was going to haul needs to 
be on my construction project by mid afternoon.

It's always something.  Oh well.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Spencer Yost" <yostsw at atis.net>
To: <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 8:32 AM
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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