I remember when my cousin and I were in the fifth grade. Our Daddies were brothers and partners in growing tobacco. Families had to depend on their families as hands to produce the tobacco for market. I guess we were called hands because it was done by hand, literally. On this piticular day we were short a hand. we were always begging to pick tobacco and my daddy said”boys I’ve got a job for you. One of us would pick down and the other would pic The next year we had a row to our on. We use the money we made to buy school clothes. Those were some of the best days.The work ethic and team work followed me through life.
drtrd, growing up in Jeff Davis County, everybody grew tobacco. Now only one or two grow the plant. Until I went to college, I drove sleds, cropped, and hung tobacco . Then in ’62 earning college money, I went with a gang of tobacco guys to Ontario, Canada to work in the fields . Cropping and processing the leaf was certainly hard work and not too healthy. Some times I got sick from the tar seeping chemicals into my skin. If you are interested in how the crop was grown in the old days, I have written an article on the subject for the Department of North Carolina Historical Preservation Office. You can do a google search by typing in “South Georgia Tobacco Patch.”
I grew up on Tobacco farms. The job of growing tobacco was difficult but we managed to make a living. The oldest Barnes were made of logs and had wood shingled roofs. The little door or window near the top of the gable roof was used to help ventilate the barn as well as allow light inside. The early barns were wood fired…later they were heated by kerosene or L. P. gas. “Cooking”(curing) a barn of tobacco took about five days. South Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and North Florida made up the flue-cure bright leaf tobacco territories. Mules and horses were used to drag sleds of green tobacco leaves to the curing barns. Later, tractors replaced them. All this was changed by the powered mechanical harvesters starting in the late 1950’s and 60’s. Today just a few grow tobacco in Georgia. In colonial days tobacco was used as currency in Virginia and North Carolina.
Thanks for sharing your memories, Jesse. My family farmed tobacco, as well, and I’ve heard the stories. It was very hard work, the kind people don’t tend to want to do anymore…
I have some relatives in Fitzgerald that grew tobacco. I was told that the little window in the top of the barns were for you to breath when hanging tobacco in the barn. Sounds good.
Yes, Terry, when I was a little boy we still had a tobacco barn on our farm and I knew others who did as well…it’s a faint memory, but you’re right on the money with that description.
I remember when my cousin and I were in the fifth grade. Our Daddies were brothers and partners in growing tobacco. Families had to depend on their families as hands to produce the tobacco for market. I guess we were called hands because it was done by hand, literally. On this piticular day we were short a hand. we were always begging to pick tobacco and my daddy said”boys I’ve got a job for you. One of us would pick down and the other would pic The next year we had a row to our on. We use the money we made to buy school clothes. Those were some of the best days.The work ethic and team work followed me through life.
drtrd, growing up in Jeff Davis County, everybody grew tobacco. Now only one or two grow the plant. Until I went to college, I drove sleds, cropped, and hung tobacco . Then in ’62 earning college money, I went with a gang of tobacco guys to Ontario, Canada to work in the fields . Cropping and processing the leaf was certainly hard work and not too healthy. Some times I got sick from the tar seeping chemicals into my skin. If you are interested in how the crop was grown in the old days, I have written an article on the subject for the Department of North Carolina Historical Preservation Office. You can do a google search by typing in “South Georgia Tobacco Patch.”
I grew up on Tobacco farms. The job of growing tobacco was difficult but we managed to make a living. The oldest Barnes were made of logs and had wood shingled roofs. The little door or window near the top of the gable roof was used to help ventilate the barn as well as allow light inside. The early barns were wood fired…later they were heated by kerosene or L. P. gas. “Cooking”(curing) a barn of tobacco took about five days. South Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and North Florida made up the flue-cure bright leaf tobacco territories. Mules and horses were used to drag sleds of green tobacco leaves to the curing barns. Later, tractors replaced them. All this was changed by the powered mechanical harvesters starting in the late 1950’s and 60’s. Today just a few grow tobacco in Georgia. In colonial days tobacco was used as currency in Virginia and North Carolina.
Jesse Bookhardt
Thanks for sharing your memories, Jesse. My family farmed tobacco, as well, and I’ve heard the stories. It was very hard work, the kind people don’t tend to want to do anymore…
I have some relatives in Fitzgerald that grew tobacco. I was told that the little window in the top of the barns were for you to breath when hanging tobacco in the barn. Sounds good.
Ever been in a tobacco barn with when it was actually drying tobacco? The odor is heavenly even if you’ve never smoked.
Yes, Terry, when I was a little boy we still had a tobacco barn on our farm and I knew others who did as well…it’s a faint memory, but you’re right on the money with that description.