[AT] new duties

[charlie hill]

A lot of the tobacco barns (flue cured) when I was a child were "four room"
barns and they were either 16 x 16 or 16 x 20.  Then as farmers got tractors
and bigger tractors and  could farm more acreage they became 5 room barns
and were usually 20 x 20.  I've seen a couple of six room barns.  A "room" 
being
a division inside the barn that is 4 feet wide delineated by "tier poles" 
which
were wooden poles and then later rough cut 2 x 6's with a spacer between 
them to
make a beam 20' long by about 5" or 6" wide.  These poles run from one end 
of the
barn to the other delineating the rooms and there are usually 6 of them 
spaced about
(whew I'm guessing now, I never measured) a bit over 2' apart vertically. 
Then there was
usually one or two "wind beams" in the top that are what you would call 
rafter ties in a house.
They were short "tier poles" in the roof of the barn.  The tobacco was tied 
or looped in bunches
of 5 or 6 leaves on 1" x 1" X 5' long "sticks".  The sticks were originally 
hand split out of pine but
later were sawed in specialized saw mills.  These sticks, once draped with 
bunches of tobacco
were hung on the poles about 6 to 8" apart.  They were hung by two guys. 
One standing on the bottom
tier pole and one usually standing on the 4th tier pole.   There was a big 
burner or several small Burners
in the floor of the barn and the heat from them rose up through the tobacco 
to cure it.  A process that takes
generally one week.  It starts at about 100 degrees with the ventilators on 
the ridge of the barn closed
and once the leaves are uniformly yellow it is increased gradually during 
the week to a high of 160 to 180
degrees until the tobacco is golden brown and the stems are no longer soft.

Then in the 70's I guess someone invented a "bulk barn" which John mentioned 
as being a metal barn
about 8' x 10'h x 30+ feet long.  Actually there were a few stick built bulk 
barns but they didn't hold up
well.  In these barns the leaves were basically packed together in racks or 
boxes with wire mesh sides
and the hot air was forced in under the floor from the back end of the barn 
and exhausted out the other end and/or
through the roof.

I was looking at some bulk tobacco barns yesterday and at the farmer hauling 
the tobacco leaves.  They how have long
trailers.  I guess 30 feet or so, with live floors (conveyor belt).  I'm not 
sure how they unload them but I suspect they
unload directly into the boxes OR into some new sort of bulk barn I'm not 
familiar with.  One farm I passed had more than
I could count but at least 30 barns, maybe 40 or 50.  Each of those barns 
can handle about 10 acres of tobacco if they are
harvesting a few leaves at a time like we used to.  So you can assume that 
guy was tending 300 to 500 or maybe more acres
of tobacco.  There is a road that is 3 miles long that starts at one corner 
of our farm.  When I was a boy at least 10 families
made a living farming anywhere from 4 to 12 acres each of tobacco.  The 
process of harvesting took about 6 weeks and required
about 12 to 14 people per day to harvest 2 to 3 acres a day.  That is 
removing  about 4 to 5 leaves per  week starting with
the leaves from the bottom and working to the top.  The higher on the plant 
the more valuable the leaves.

Now there is one farmer on that whole road.  There are only about 5 or so, 
maybe 10 tobacco farmers now in the whole county.  Looking at
that live floor trailer yesterday, I'm guessing that 5 men can harvest 
probably 20 acres a day using a mechanical harvester, those
trailers and bulk barns.  Of course that is depending on how they harvest. 
Now days a lot of the farmers spray the whole crop
with a chemical to induce "ripening" of the leaves and harvest the whole 
stalk at once instead of a few leaves at a time.  Doing it
that way those same 5 men (or women) could probably do about 5 to 10 acres a 
day.  There are some economies of scale in it
but the quality of the tobacco suffers.  I'm guessing on the amounts but 
it's a somewhat educated guess.

There's a lot more to it that I've written but I've probably confused 
everyone by now and it won't get any better if I go on.
Not that you fellows can't understand but because I'm rambling.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: John Hall
Sent: Sunday, July 09, 2017 1:49 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] new duties


Here is a twist for you Ralph, tobacco is cured in a barn. It was 150
years ago and is today, but the size and styles have changed greatly.
Originally they were square log structures, maybe 20 ft sq. For the last
45-50 years they are metal buildings about 8 wide, 10 high and 30-40'
long. At least this applies to the majority of tobacco farming (flue
cured). The air cured burley tobacco is cured in very loosely boarded
"barns"--that is up in David and maybe Spencer's neck of the woods.

I know Charlie can give more specifics.

By the way, all of our equipment is parked under sheds. The barn was
built for the cows and horses and storing hay and straw. It does have a
shed built on the west side that I park my old 55 Deere combine under
and my IH corn planter.

Ralph, I think your summation of a barn is what the MAJORITY of barn
owners would describe. I see "barn" being used a lot to describe some
garage packages offered by builders.

John Hall

On 7/7/2017 10:49 AM, Ralph Goff wrote:
> On 7/4/2017 3:36 PM, Indiana Robinson wrote:
>>> Barns are a whole other ball game...  :-
>>>
>>>
>>> Rambling again...
>>> A "barn" to me is a wooden farm building usually either timber frame,
>>> balloon framed or I also include the small dairy barns that almost 
>>> always
>>> have a gambrel or cyclone roof around here.
>>>
>    I have a problem with how the term "barn" has been mis used so much in
> the media lately. To me a barn was only for
> animals. Be they cattle, chickens or horses. You might occasionally park
> a tractor in a barn but you don't store your
> antique cars and trucks in a barn. As so many shows and videos like to
> use the term "barn find" it has become viral.
> I keep my vehicles and machinery in a shed or garage. Animals go in a
> barn. Just my opinion and I expect I am in the minority
> as usual.
>
> Ralph in Sask.
>

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