TIP #258 - TOBACCO Being an Illinois transplant to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, I had no idea of what was involved in the early days of raising the primary crop of tobacco. Now a controversial subject, tobacco however is one of the major, if not the major, crops of Kentucky. Many improvements have been made during the passage of time, but our early ancestors followed primarily what they had done back in Virginia and other tobacco-producing states. Virginia had stumbled into tobacco thanks to John Rolfe in 1612 by learning to cure tobacco so that the white man could enjoy smoking it - unlike the Indian tobacco which was bitter and of a rough texture. Needing an income quickly, many Virginia settlers turned to tobacco as the base of their economic survival. They immediately invested most of what they had into this new crop - tobacco. It was such a base of economy that even ministers, doctors and tax collectors were paid in tobacco. The records are scant if not non-existent on how the first Americans grew their tobacco but in Maryland and Virginia primarily, a set routine was used, much of which is still used today. The following description would refer to the earlier days of tobacco raising in Virginia but much applies to Kentucky. Tobacco seed is finer than dust and has to be sown in "new" ground in January. By late May the little seedlings are set in rows in the field and watered plant by plant as they are replanted. Weeds have to be removed and many slaves spent the entire tobacco season with their makeshift hoes working the tobacco beds. By the end of July, during the hottest part of the season, flower buds appear at the top of the 5 foot tall stalks. These had to be removed by hand, also by the slaves. By late August, the plants, still bright green, are cut off close to the ground and their butts are paled on slender sticks, 5 plants to a stick. An iron point is slipped on the stick and the sticks are hung so the tobacco hangs head down in barns. They are allowed to cure until early winter (or earlier depending upon the climate). When the curing time has been completed, the leaves are stripped off the stalks and called - this is known as grading. They are carefully bunched into fan-shaped, flat "hands". These are stacked about 30 inches high and stored until the following summer. The tobacco is then packed into hogsheads for shipment. Hogsheads are drums made of straight staves, loosely fitted and hooped with split saplings. A hogshead is about 5 feet in diameter and as many feet long. It is packed with as many "hands" as it can hold, placed in a horizontal screw press (a prize) and the contents of two casks, each of the same size as the hogshead, are forced in on top of the original packing. This could weigh as much as 750-800 pounds. A cask of tobacco weights only 500 pounds. There are improvements to the process now but in the beginning this was the normal routine. William Daniel Tolle, who wrote under the pen name of Ellot, of Barren County, KY states that most of the tobacco grown in the south central part of Kentucky was transported to New Orleans by flat boat. He also notes that the field into which the tobacco seed was to be planted had to be "well broken" with all loose roots and other obstructions carefully removed. The standard size was 3 ½ feet wide and a good "hill" was made in which the plant was set. The field was plowed by hand and was done in the heat of the day when the leaves were wilted from the sun. When the tobacco was ready for harvest it was "ripe" and a sharp knife was used to cut the tobacco as described above. A decision had to be made to ascertain if the tobacco was ripe - by doubling the leaf between the thumb and finger. If the left broke easily it was ripe. The tobacco was left in the field to wilt piled into a stack by the hill. When it was wilted sufficiently, they were carried to a scaffold carefully, the stack could not be broken. Sometimes the farmer piled the tobacco on a slide and pulled it to the scaffold where it was hung as described above. It was the norm that the scaffold piles generally pointed east and west so the noon day sun would shine down between the sticks of tobacco which were hung 8-10 inches apart. Tolle states also that the plant beds were often made in the woods and covered with brush. The tobacco was seldom ready then before Christmas unless it was cured by fire. In the latter, ditches were dug in the dirt floor of the barn and green wood such as beech and sugar tree were excellent slow burners after the wood was fired. To fill a hanging stick with tobacco, the farmer sometimes sat down and held the stick with one hand. He took a leaf in the other hand and pushed it through the sharp point of the stick, use the other hand to grab another left and proceed this way until the stick was filled. Tobacco, according to Tolle, was stripped during the damp weather of winter. It was thought that it required the March winds to dry and season it sufficiently to withstand the transportation on the rivers to New Orleans. When the tobacco was dried sufficiently, the tobacco was taken down and bulked for prizing. This always had to be done during the coming of a damp spell of weather. Many times this required working at night with someone in a "watch tower" alerting the farmers that the season was coming in. Alarms sounded and everyone strong enough or old enough had to awaken and head off at a dead run to the tobacco barn. The stalks had to be taken down with the stems would crack one third the way down to the leaf. It could be laid down in the barn on the stick at night and bulked the next day. It was left to prize next March. There was always a tide in May which was the last chance the farmers could ship their tobacco for the year. There was an old expression, per Tolle, that "there would always be a Maytide if it did not come until June." Prizing was done by finding a tree which was straight from the ground. A hole was morticed large enough to hold a large tenon which was cut on the end of a beam. The beam was about 10-12 inches square; the tenon was placed in the mortice through the tree. A slot was cut in the front end of the beam so a sword could be placed through it. Holes were made through the sword for pins to hold the beam at any height desired. The end of the sword was fastened in a log 8-10 feet long and 20-24 inches in diameter - this was called the weight. At the end of the beam a large forked sapling was planted; over this fork a sweep pole was placed to raise the beam. By 1840 tobacco factories appeared in Louisville, Kentucky and most of the tobacco was sent there rather than flatboated down to New Orleans. Information taken from "Backroads of Barren County, Kentucky, Volume 2, William Daniel Tolle, Gorin Genealogical Publishing, (c) Copyright May 1994. (c) Copyright 26 August 1999, Sandra K. Gorin, All Rights Reserved. sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Colonel Sandi Gorin 205 Clements,Glasgow, KY 42141 (270) 651-9114 or E-fax (707)222-1210 Member Glasgow-Barren County Chamber of Commerce Gorin Genealogical Publishing: http://members.delphi.com/gorin1/index.html TIPS: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/Tips KYBIOS: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/Bios ARCHIVES: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl