Started cutting tobacco.

Got started cutting this weekend. Off to a good start. I got the wagons out of the weeds. No rear ends locked up, no tires were blown out, and 3 wagons did not even need air in any of the tires. Only got stung once by wasp while fishing wagons out of the weeds. Found no mice and only one snake while load'n sticks. First day of cutting the Chevy rolled over 180,000 miles and the 6700 ford rolled up 4,000 hours. Hope every one's summer is winding down good.

Dave

Dave,

Tobacco was king here in Columbia County, FL years ago, but all but gone now. I think I've seen maybe 40 acres planted total. I think there was some kind of settlement/buyout a few years ago. Do you harvest by hand or is mechanized there? I worked a couple summers for my dad's friend as a kid, brutal work.

JBM

Probably about 2/3 of the tobacco is hanging in the barns areound my neck of KY.

years ago (20s, 30s, 40s)my grandfather raised tabacco in ct. guess they cut it buy hand, as there are still a bunch of hachets around. also a lot of tabacco lathes( for hanging it up).just wanted to say , must been hard work! ya know, ya dont hear much about tobacco these days. thats all, good luck

'Bout the same here in Southern Ohio

That sure reminds me of the good old days here in WNC when we use to grow a lot of burly tobacco. It is hard to run across a tobacco patch in my county anymore. We had tobacco and a dairy farm and actually made some $ at it. Those days are sure gone. Tobacco sent me and my 2 siblings through 4 years of college. That would be impossible these days. I can remember cutting tobacco that had to be 7' tall and the stalk 2 1/2 inches in diameter. I remember getting 3500lbs per acre. There on the last we did good to get 1800 lbs per acre. I am not bragging but seems like when I was in college I could cut around 100 sticks per hour. Does that sound right. I know I always cut the first rows because the faster cutters cut the first rows because they stayed out of the slower cutters way. That was when I was strong and healthy. My poor old back would not take that now.

I will have to say that I don't miss those days one bit! There have probably been alot of advances in the harvesting process since I id the old knife and spike thing. Are you cutting that tobacco in Webster County? We grew alot of it when I was a kid in McCracken County. I haven't seen one patch grown in Crittenden County. Hope the crop does well for you.
Fud

The wife's father grew that stuff! I got roped into helping a few years. Dang near enough reason not to get married! We're not far from the Bloomfield Ky auction barn. Usta be a busy place. Just a big empty shell of a building nowdays. There's still a lot of acreage around here, but it's mostly in the hands of a few people. I noticed a couple locals cutting their crops about 3 weeks ago. Seems early. It's been extremely dry here though.

I went to Trader's World/Turtle Creek Flea Markets was going to try and go to Caeser's Creek, but decided to go back home - saw some farms up on US 42 near Waynesville with tobacco curing in barns.

I'd never seen it cured before...but looked nice hanging there.

Christos

I'm a little bit farther south of there. Most everyone here has theirs hung and drying.

Seems to me that I remember cutting tobacco...you had a cutter and a spearpoint...you put the spearpoint on one end of the tobacco stick and stabbed the other end in the ground. You cut ten tobacco plants and used the point (sharp) to poke a hole in the stalk and slide them down on the stick. Then you removed the point and went to the next stick. Theres tobacco cutters and then theres tobacco cutters...some of those tough little thin built fellows would be to the end of their row and headed back before I got to the end of mine.
When you got enough cut, you'd load it on a wagon and haul it to the barn and climb up in the top and stand on three inch poles to hang it. Another job for those thin built fellows. After it was all in the barn, it was Miller time...and believe me you needed it...that's a tough job...and you're not done yet cause next is to strip it when it is in case, I believe they call it. (I've never done this)Anyhow along about Christmas time they always took it to Ripley, Ohio or Maysville, Ky. to sell it. The brothers went along on this trip once and they took a fellow with them that seemed to me to be one fry short of a happy meal and as they went across the Ohio river he said "Goodbye old United States." Someone else who has raised it will probably add more to this...like sitting on the back of the tobacco planter and setting plants and it was something for me at 5 or 6 years old to look in the water tank and see crawdads in there. I never liked to sucker it though, breaking off the suckers so that the plant would put it's effort on the main leaves...that's enough...ohfred

I remember when we would split the stalk in half about 2/3 of the way down and hang it over the stick. Yall must be a bunch of young wiper snappers.

Granddad used to make me do a few each year like that to make sure I knew how. Now we use a stainless steel spike that goes over the end of the stick and it goes through the stalk about 8" from the the bottom.

Dave

Most all are just a shell or have been torn down. There are none left open in Ownensboro. There was one open two years ago in Hopkinsville.

Yes I am in Webster Co. Never figured out why there is not more grown down that way. With the sandy soil and most of it well drained I'd thought it would have grown good.

Hey Fud, did you all ever hear anything as to what happened to the kid that died in his sleep a while back. My friend that is close to some of the family said he still has not heard of any test coming back.

Thanks,

Dave

Bout the same here. I am just behind as normal. With the wet spring I did not get in a hurry with setting. Some of the folks who mudded it in around mid May are done. I find it's alot easier to find some help if mine is a little late.

Dave

By hand. There is a kid next county up who has a machine. He is going to try to run 12 acres of dark through it. If I get done before he gives up on it, I am going to go and watch from the road. It's hard to keep leaves on dark while cutting by hand, he is going to have a pile of stalks on the trailer.

Dave

yea, the bloomfield barn mentioned above is a fertilizer place now, that's who gets my money most of the time

i live in webster co. also and in past years cut my share.whereabout are you ?saw some this past weekend that a fella had a good start on,outside slaughters area. i live near sebree

I live in the Poole-Tilden area.

I work just out side of Sebree, at the water treatment plant by 4 Star, Tyson, and Big Rivers.

Dave

spent alot of time in poole area as a teen. know several folks out that way

Thats funny, I hung out in Sebree alot when I was younger, now work here.

If you see a little red cavalier go'n thourgh Sebree about 7 am wave, thats me head'n back to the East Side of Tilden.

Dave

I finished cutting mine about 2 weeks ago, but with the drought and severe insect and disease pressure it was not a good year for tobacco. I have a lot of experience with flue cured, but this is my first burley crop.

Most around here was very good. I plowed mine about 2 weeks before we got hit with a pretty good storm. A little wind and alot of rain. What was on the hill got laid over and what was in the low spots died. Some of it had a corn field up hill but there is a good diversion ditch between them. The ditch will turn about 2.5", well we got over 4 one night. I was thinking that it had just scalded down and would come back but when the nutsedge and morning glorys died too I knew it was not going to snap out of it.

Hope yours weighs good.

Dave