Tobacco used to be king in Vernon County where we live. Dairy farming was the main source of income on most farms, but the tobacco crop helped pay the taxes and in many cases paid off the mortgage. Today it’d be hard to find a tobacco plant in the whole county.
The countryside is filled with tobacco sheds that stand empty and are deteriorating from lack of use and maintenance. Those old shed were starting to fill up this time of year when I was young.
My father was a dairy farmer, but he was also well known as a tobacco farmer, just as his father and grandfather had been. I know he actually enjoyed raising tobacco and was proud of the quality of the tobacco he produced. We raised 12 acres for many years while I was growing up. It was big, heavy tobacco. We had a huge field west of the barn that looked like a sea of tobacco when it was full grown in August. It seemed even bigger when we were young and had to cut and pile those long rows.
People who have raised tobacco know, it’s a labor-intensive crop. Harvesting was the toughest time. Dad always hired a crew to help with the harvest. He’d place an ad in the paper advertising for experienced help. Novices need not apply. There was no time to teach them what to do and he didn’t want someone who didn’t know what they were doing, damaging the leaves. Hired help got the standard rate of a dollar an hour. They also got a noon and evening meal, plus coffee mid-morning and afternoon. As many of you know, coffee was more like the main meal we eat today. Eventually they eliminated the evening meal. I never gave it any thought at the time, but Ma must have been cooking and baking constantly from before sunup to after sundown. People loved to work at our place because they knew they would get some great meals.
Dad made sure they earned those meals. People who had worked for him before knew they’d be putting in some long, hard days, but many came back every year. How many of you would work that hard today for a dollar an hour? As I’ve heard said many times, “It helps to have a weak mind and a strong back if you’re going to work in tobacco.”
For those not familiar with tobacco harvesting, there were several phases, or jobs, all physical. The first job was to remove the suckers that grew on the plant after it was topped. That’s when you broke off the blooming part on top. Many people used a spray to control the suckers, but Dad thought the spray also stunted the growth of the leaves, so we usually removed them by hand. We all hated suckering. Your hands got so black from the tobacco juice that even Lava soap couldn’t get them clean.
The next step was to cut the plants down. This was always done with one eye on the weather. We felt like we’d joined the ranks of the grownups when we got to wield a tomahawk-like tobacco axe with a very thin, extremely sharp blade. Each person took a row, bent over, pushed the plant to the side with one hand, and chopped it off with the axe. The chop, chop, chop sound went quickly down the rows. You didn’t straighten up until you reached the end of the row. If you got careless you could easily plant that axe in your foot or chop a finger off.
After the plants had time to wilt in the hot sun so the leaves wouldn’t be damaged, they were ready to be gathered up and placed in piles. As young kids we usually got stuck with piling and we hated it.
Next came the spearing of the plants onto tobacco laths. We usually had very big tobacco, so five or six plants was the limit per lath or they’d get too crowded and heavy. This job seemed to fall to the older workers who weren’t able to climb in the shed anymore. Spearing still involved a lot of bending up and down. Most people used a spear horse, but I preferred to spear without one because it was faster. With all the bending from the jobs I’ve mentioned, it’s no wonder we were sore and stiff at the end of the day.
The next step was to pick up the speared tobacco and put it on the tobacco rack to be hauled to the shed and hung up to cure. Even though hauling and hanging were the hardest jobs physically, I liked hanging the best. You felt like you’d arrived when you were trusted to climb up in the shed, balance on two wobbly poles, and hang the heavy tobacco. You knew you had done something at the end of the day, when you were so tired you could hardly move.
Of course after the big supper meal, all the hired help went home and we headed for the barn to do chores and milking. While we were in the barn, Ma was in the house cleaning everything up and starting to cook and bake for the next day. Uff da, how did she do it?
I’m sure glad I don’t have to harvest tobacco anymore. Just the thought of it tires me out!
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