maybe not immortal tractors- but...

Thinking about the starship enterprise and time warps... reminded me to get these shots out of the camera. Taken last Friday. Atleat 10 of these... H's? M's? cornbinder tricylces anyway, 9 in one field, and one on the road infront of me. Who knows how many were at the barns they were going to.
So when people insist old gas tractors have no place in modern farming... well, hard to get a better profit margin than cigar tobacco, so tell the stogie companies they are doing something wrong here....

Western Mass.????

(quoted from post at 20:33:39 09/09/13) Western Mass.????

Click to expand...

Well... OK, Don... you win the cigar. You are off by about a mile and a half tho- northern Connecticut. Big shade fields up the road from there. So many thick posts and hanging cheesecloth, I can never get pics of those operations... hey I'll dig up some I took on the fly for Lyle last year, the fields are already empty now.

Neat pics.

Looks like they are doing pretty good there, if the workers are driving an Audi.

I think there are quite a few farms still around that run older equipment.

Rick

Thanks for posting. I grew up in western KY raising air cured burley and dark tobacco. I had read about shade tobacco but had never seen any pics.
Nick

Tony,

Thought it was in Suffield,CT.Did you also notice that there is more broadleaf being grown than shade? I saw one big farm, that used to grow shade,grow all broadleaf this year.

Vito

If you like old movies check out "A Summerplace" from about 1960. All about growing shade tobacco in CT. Nice scenery as I recall...but a bit mushy.

Great pictures. I have never heard of shade tobacco either. But believe it or not here in Southern Il. my neighbors raise tobacco. I think it is burley. They hang it on wires and cover it with black plastic after it has hung for a week or so. There is about 5 acres of wires full of tobacco in sight of my sons house. Vic

So that is what I saw the Amish growing outside Lancaster PA. I drove along a road just off the 30 wondering just what they were hanging up to dry....Kinda thought it might be t'baccy but every time I went to stop to ask anyone they sort of turned away.......Must have known I was a foreigner!
Sam

That brings back memories I worked Broadleaf at 13 yrs old in Enield Conn. in early 60's for .35 cents an hour 50 cents for perl tear.

The memories are still coming back, the first yr I worked the field as a chopper we had a sort of a hatchet you chopped the plant off close to the ground and handed it to a kid on the wagon just like the ones in the picture he would hang the plant upside down on a wooden lathe that was about 3 ft long and held about 6 or more plants on each side on sharp metal hooks. Once the wagon was full it went to the barn where kids would hang the lathes on tears, the highest tear in the barn was right up in the peak called the perl tear, the older kids got to hang perl tear each tear got more money.They heated the barns with gas heaters and would open the sides as neaded to ventilate.The farmers would come right into the school and set up a table and hire the kids, you needed to be 13 yrs old and get working papers signed by your parents. there would be several farms there so you had your choise Hass and Hathaway come to mind as two farms.Often when hanging plants on the lathes the metal hook would come loose I remember one young kid put a hook in his pocket when he sat down for lunch he drove the point right into his you no what the farmers wife had to take him to the Dr. BTW. Shade grown you harvest only the leaf and it was sown on to the lathes by the girls and hung up by the boys and usualy Jamaicans would work under the nets. I never did make perl tear only got up about 3 tears high as I recall. Thats my memories best as I can tell it and im stickin to it

Just the opposite Sam! Don't feel bad... they were feeling bad... "federalay! Gringo federalay! Vamuss muchachos! arriba riba!!!' These guys must all have their papers, they waved at me, wanted their picture taken!

I got something else for you and Donjr on a new post above. You were across the river from this small patch. This is in Suffield, so Vito wins a Local cigar too... you guys are smokin'... more ways than one! BTW, most of these guys are Jamaicans too! Family tradition eh?