[AT] Horrible harvesting conditions.

[charlie hill]

Ralph, rain pretty much stops the combines here too.  I was talking about 
tobacco which, in those days, was harvested by pulling the leaves off by 
hand.  Tobacco is perishable in that you have to get it off the plant and in 
the curing barn when it is ripe or it will go bad.  Imagine the leaves on 
the trees in your yard.  It's too soon to pick them when they are green and 
too late to pick them when they are brown.  You have to do it when they turn 
yellow.
The tobacco leaves start to turn from the bottom of the plant up.  Each week 
you have to take 2 to 4 leaves off of the plant.  That first week you spend 
the entire day bent over double pulling the "sand lugs".  Each week it gets 
a bit easier.  It's about a 6 week process.

Some folks still harvest by hand but most now use mechanical harvesters. 
Some even use chemicals to make all of the tobacco turn "ripe" at once and 
pull all the leaves with a "once over" machine.

Some of the other guys will have to explain the Burley tobacco process.  All 
I know is eastern belt, golden leaf, flue cured.

Back to the combines.  I guess you can pick corn in a light rain but the 
humidity is so high in these parts that if it's raining the moisture in the 
corn is too high.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ralph Goff" <alfg at sasktel.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 10:24 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] Horrible harvesting conditions.


>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "charlie hill" <charliehill at embarqmail.com>
> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" 
> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 7:25 AM
> Subject: Re: [AT] Horrible harvesting conditions.
>
>
>> My worst experiences weren't from cold but rain.
>
> Charlie, thats one big difference between your area and mine. When the 
> first
> rain drops fall thats when the combines head for home. Sometimes a little
> rain shower gives us a much needed break after a few weeks of long days on
> the combine. After a good rain it takes up to 3 days for cereals to dry 
> out,
> less for oilseeds like canola.
>
> Ralph in Sask.
>
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