Written by Carter Hall on November 30th, 2019

For centuries, farming has been an occupation for thousands, not just a hobby or special interest. Many practice farming in the ways they were taught as children, though agricultural science and research have changed to accommodate more modern schools of thought.

Having worked in tobacco fields for decades, many in my family have had firsthand experiences with North Carolina’s cash crop. In a recent conversation with my grandfather, I was told about the differences between decades-removed tobacco harvesting practices and the newer methodologies of 21st-century farmers.

The following is a rough transcript of the conversation between he (presented as “J”) and I (presented as “C”):

C: How was planting and harvesting tobacco years ago different from how farmers do it today?

J: “Well, in the olden days, people would grow tobacco at first under cheesecloth, then take the seedlings and plant them in the fields. Over time, the fields were fertilized, but how they planted it then was much different than nowadays. Today, farmers will plant seedlings inside of greenhouses, growing them just like they would in a field until the plants were big enough. Then, they will transport them to the field. (pause) Now, a really long time ago, they did all of this by hand — the first planting, taking it out, then moving it and re-planting it in the ground. Around the 50s or so, I believe, there were these machines that would save people from bending over. So, to plant a tobacco plant, you just dropped it in there, and the machine would carve into the ground and put it down in there, and you were finished.

C: So to harvest a plant, you just picked the leaves off, put them on a stick and took them to the barn to be cured, right?

J: Well, sort of. See, in the old days that’s what you would’ve done, but you would have also had to make sure there weren’t any worms or insects on the leaves that you had. A tobacco plant probably has around 25-30 leaves on it…

C: That’s a lot of handwork since you’d think there were around 50 plants a row, 30 or so rows in a decent-sized field like what we’ve got on the farm.

J: Yeah, it was quite a bit. But today, there’s a machine that can rid tobacco plants of insects and puts them in a box. Then, the boxes would be taken to the barn where another machine compressed the leaves and baled them into small square bales. Then, farmers will take them to certain places because they have contracts with them.

C: What about curing the plants and taking them to markets; how did farmers back in the day do that?

J: Well, beforehand the barns had fires made from wood that would heat the plants up enough. Later on, though, charcoal was used as a way to cure plants. After the plants were cured, they had a sort of yellow-brown color, and that’s where the whole place in Durham got its “Brightleaf” name from (referencing Brightleaf Square in Durham, NC and the brightleaf tobacco that made the region famous).

J: You see, after buyers would go around at markets and look at the different loads of tobacco, they would buy and take it to factories to be made into cigars, cigarettes and such. Then it would be packaged and put in stores for people to buy.

A picture from Tobacco Land, U.S.A by Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company showing the [circa 1940] process of planting and harvesting tobacco.

A picture from Tobacco Land, U.S.A by Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company showing a packaging machine for Chesterfield Cigarettes. (circa 1950)


Sources:

Tobacco Land, U.S.A. Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, 1940.

Tobacco Land, U.S.A. Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, 1950.

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