Raising Tobacco

Everyone big enough to work helped in the fields. Tobacco had to be worked a lot. After it was about grown, my pappa always did the "topping," breaking out the center top. Then the leaves that were left grew thick and were of a good grade.

But it grew what was called "suckers," two over each leaf next to the stalk, and many near the ground. We must go over each plant and remove each of these suckers by hand, being very careful not to break or bruise the leaves. It took several weeks for all of them to appear and several times of going over the field removing them.

During this process the plants ripened and were ready for cutting. My pappa tested for maturity, then he gave the word for cutting. Only he and experienced help did the cutting. He held the plant at the topping spot by the stalk, and with his special knife he cut carefully. Each stalk was cut precisely down the center to two or three inches from the bottom. Then he sliced across it slanted and laid it carefully on the ground.

The rest of us came behind with small sticks, about one inch in diameter by three feet long, split out of timber. After a short wilting period, we picked up about eight plants to a stick and strung them upside down, turning one end until full and then the other, never letting it drag the ground.

Then we hung each stick across a scaffolding of poles barely higher than the length of the tobacco. It was left there until very yellow and wilted. Then it was hauled by wagonloads to the barn and hung with fire and smoke under it until well cured.

Before harvest when we were taking care of the tobacco in the fields, it must be plowed and hoed at least twice. Then there were the bud worms to pick off or spray. As it grew larger, another big type of horned tobacco worm got on it. We picked these off too or sprayed them with a small amount of arsenic added to large parts of flour.

We often had fun killing these worms which were the same type that we tied thread to for pulling loads of pebbles. When we would find large, fat ones, we would pop them hard on the ground or rocks, and the would burst open. We thought this was so funny. It may seem cruel, but they ate up our money crop.

Once my sister and I were sent to spray a field of tobacco on Saturday morning. We did not like to work on Saturday. My pappa, as usual, knew the exact amount of poison to put in our cloth bags so we could shake one short shake over each plant. We decided to hurry and then go to Aunt Hattie's for a visit. We sprayed fast and buried the remaining poison under a big rock.

My pappa was very upset when he thought we had oversprayed. He checked out the field. "It looks okay," he said, but he knew we should have had poison left. We got by with that one until we were grown and told him about it.

My sister Sadie tried the same thing once with seed peas. She planted them all around a big stump because she was tired of planting. Guess what? They all came up! She lost on that one.