[AT] Grain Augers--Long

[charlie hill]

Al,  if I remember right my dad wanted to have his tobacco "layed by" (last 
plowing because of it's size) by the first of June and normally started to 
harvest by the first week in July.  July 4th was NOT a holiday we often 
celebrated!   The harvest typically took 6 weeks and the old guys would tell 
you if you didn't have your crop out of the field by mid August "the worms 
would eat it up".   Even though we had DDT and some other strong pesticides 
back then,  tobacco worms and other bug pests seemed to be a worse problem 
back then than they are now.  Maybe it's just because I'm not on the farm to 
see it now.   I bet you don't remember when a guy named "Eck" Wall did a 
daily tobacco report on channel 9.  He reported total sales volume in 
Greenville and other surrounding market towns, the sales volume and average 
sales price and he'd usually have a bunch (bundle) of tobacco from the 
highest sale price pile in the Greenville market (that was in the days when 
tobacco was still graded and tied in bunches with a wrapper leaf).  He had a 
clothes line in the TV Studio and he'd say "and you can hang that one on the 
line!" as he put the record sale price bundle over the line.  For those that 
have never seen it, the bunch of leaves were separated apart in the middle 
and put over the string with the stems, tied by the wrapper leaf, hanging 
over the top of the line so that it sat there much like an old fashion 
wooden clothes pin.  By the end of the season he'd have tobacco bunches half 
way across the set on "the line".   Back then there were almost NO 
industrial jobs in eastern NC.   The few industrial plants we had were 
either tobacco processing or other farm related industries.   Tobacco was 
KING and everyone knew it.   A tobacco farmer was respected as a community 
leader much the same way as a small business owner is now.

Charlie



-----Original Message----- 
From: Al Jones
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 10:55 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Grain Augers--Long

Ones I remember were two-story, like a Silent Flame, pulled with a tractor. 
Instead of chains the croppers put the hands of tobacco on a "ferris wheel" 
(two per row?)which as it turned brought the tobacco up to the loopers on 
the top "story" of the harvester. They took it off the ferris wheel and tied 
it on the sticks.  I guess each wheel was at least 5-6' in diameter but it's 
been a while.

Yes I am an oddity. Most of my school friends hired out to farmers to earn 
the money for their new clothes for school each year.  Many bought their 
first car this way.  Meanwhile I was stuck home sloppin' hogs.

It seems to me tobacco comes off real late here now.  Some didn't harvest 
any until way into July.  Used to, it seemed like they had taken the lugs at 
least by 4th of July.  Usually everyone was done or about done by Labor Day. 
This year there was tobacco in the field until October.  I remember one year 
in the 80s' there was talk of postponing opening school because the tobacco 
was late but I think it fell through.

I also remember the pageantry surrounding opening day of the tobacco market. 
ALL the local news stations had reporters at the warehouses, especially our 
local CBS station, based out of Greenville NC which was a huge tobacco 
buying area, as well as Tarboro, Farmville, etc.  It's been a long 
time...seems like the Eastern Belt usually opened around the end of July??

Al


-----Original Message-----
>From: john hall <jtchall at nc.rr.com>
>Sent: Dec 31, 2011 9:09 PM
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>Subject: Re: [AT] Grain Augers--Long
>
>Okay AL, what's a ferris wheel harvester?
>
>I am quite in shock you've never worked in tobacco. Normally you find folks
>that have done that but never worked with grains or hay. It's not too late
>you know---go loan yourself out for a 1/2 day next summer to a tobacco
>farmer.
>
>Tobacco up this way can get to running real late--in other words everyone
>starts panicking frost will hit it before it is all pulled (that happened
>quite a bit this year). In the mid '80's, daddy had a cousin that actually
>cured a couple barns that were fired with wood. They used bulk barns and
>only used stick barns for backup. This one year they needed to get it in 
>and
>were already running the kerosene and propane barns. I suspect it was about
>as much as for old times sake as anything else.
>
>John
>
>-- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Al Jones" <farmallsupera at earthlink.net>
>To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 6:19 PM
>Subject: Re: [AT] Grain Augers--Long
>
>
>>
>> John,
>>
>> I think grandaddy's barn may have used Vann burners too.  The barn still
>> stood 'till hurricane fran in '96 but the equipment and so forth was long
>> gone--he built a floor inside and stored shelled corn for his hogs in it.
>>
>> The last stick barn, that I know of, used in our neighborhood was in 
>> about
>> '90 or '91. They had a "ferris wheel" harvester you pulled behind a
>> tractor.  Was that a Davis?
>>
>> Al
>
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