Growing Tobacco

My pappa kept trotlines in the river all summer and winter. He trapped and hunted both for meat and furs. We stretched the skins for drying on the front of the smokehouse and sold them to the "skin man." My pappa made hay for wintering the cows and mules, which he used to plow the crops.

For a "money crop" he grew dark-fired tobacco, which was really hard work. From plant beds to harvest was from February to late August or September - then came curing time. If you had good luck, you would strip and market it by December.

"Stripping" was classifying the tobacco by different grades. We mostly did this in our kitchen. Oh, it was such a dirty mess. But the kitchen was warm, which meant: number one, the tobacco stayed "in order," meaning soft and workable; and number two, we did not get cold as many people did in their barns.

We "bulked it down" in our front room, which was the bedroom of the grown girls and also the courting room on weekend.