[AT] Grain Augers--Long

Sun Jan 1 06:33:57 PST 2012

Charlie, that timing sounds like what I remember here.  Yes I have heard the older ones say the worms would "eat it up" if it stayed in the field too long.....

At my grandparents' house, Channel 9 was revered.  They started their day every morning with "Carolina Today" with Slim Short, and the other folks (whose names I remember as good as mine but Can't right now!).  John Spence was the farm reporter that I remember.  I do remember detailed reports on the tobacco prices during the summer.  In the mid-80s my cousin got his first job as the cooperative extension agent in Edgcombe county, and once in a while John Spence would interview him for this or that for his farm report.  That was BIG news at my grandparents when that happened!

Channel 7 out of Washington reported on the tobacco markets, I want to say Dick Jones did their farm report.  This would have been late 70's--early 80's.

I also remember commercials on Channel 9 for Speight "Triple Crown" tobacco seed!

Al

-----Original Message-----
>From: charlie hill <charliehill at embarqmail.com>
>Sent: Jan 1, 2012 8:27 AM
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>Subject: Re: [AT] Grain Augers--Long
>
>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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