[AT] Grain Augers--Long

Sun Jan 1 18:36:09 PST 2012

Slim Short,  Sherman Husted was the weather man,  Eck Wall was before John 
Spence, Hal Moore an insurance man from Ayden was on there most of the time. 
He is the father of John Moore who is on TV a lot around I doing commercials 
and the Southern Sportsman show.  He is also a DJ.   There are some more of 
those Carolina Today guys but the names escape me right now.  I don't   know 
if you realize it
but that was one of if not the first morning TV talk show before there was a 
Good Morning America or Today show.  Oh yeah there was a crusty old man last 
name Debnam on there who did a segment called Debnam Views the News which 
was a combination news and opinion segment much like what Jesse Helms used 
to do on WRAL in Raleigh.   There's still a couple more that I'll think of 
sooner or later.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Al Jones
Sent: Sunday, January 01, 2012 9:33 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Grain Augers--Long

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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