Tobacco Farming

Here are some pictures of tobacco when it is being cut. When I was a kid growing up we grew tobacco. It is work all year long. In the first picture is the tobacco and part of it is cut. Then from there they put it on the wagons and haul it to the barns where it is hung up. Some people have these top covered long sheds, well they aren't sheds as they run the whole length of the field, so they are long! In the one picture you can see it has no tobacco in it and then it does have tobacco hanging in it. With it having no sides maybe it cures better but then it is exposed more to the elements, so I'm not sure if that is better or not. It probably is since you see a lot of those nowadays. It sure would be easier to hang it in them rather than in a barn, like we always did. In the last pictures you see the tobacco hanging in the barn where it will cure and then be taken down and the leaves will be stripped off. We had a stripping room with a long bench along one side. Stripping is always done in the cold weather so we had a wood stove for heat. It is a stinky dusty job and the tobacco gum sticks to your hands until they are coated. We tied the leaves in hands and put them on sticks and they were then put in a press to mash them down and that is how they went to market. Now they just strip the leaves off and press up bales most of the time.

I never was involved in cutting the tobacco thankfully!! My Dad would hire a crew to help cut. My Mom and I would have to cook dinner for all them. She always had a feast. We had chickens and she would kill a couple and we fried them, and she usually had homemade biscuits, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans and a couple more vegetable dishes, sliced onions, sliced tomatoes, and then cakes and pies to follow it all up with. Believe me, no one went back to work hungry and if they did it was their own fault! Then she and I had all the dish washing to clean up.

I recall when I was younger I always wanted to go to the barn when they were cutting the tobacco and hanging it, but my Dad wouldn't let me. I kept after him with, "Why Daddy, Why can't I come to the barn??" He told me that a little girl didn't need to be around a bunch of old men. Again I said, "Why Daddy?" He said, "Well Rachel, men are just a bunch of old brutes and a little girl does not need to be around them." At that time I wasn't sure what an old brute was but I figured it meant they passed gas or burped and didn't excuse themselves or maybe they cussed. At any rate I stayed away from the barn when the "old brutes" were there working!!