Gawd Gary, you and kyplowboy gave me nighmares remembering it. He must be west of me, where they raise dark air cured. East of I65 its all burley tobacco (light air cured). Procedure is similar. I got out with the buy-out and never looked back.
I always plowed on the first dry day after Valentines day. I only used float plants the last couple of years. We fixed a plant bed in March before then, 12 feet by 100 feet (makes 1-2 acres of plants), cover with plastic and release 6 pounds of methyl bromide gas under the plastic. Let fumigate for a week then pull the plastic and scatter the seed (2 teaspoons in 2 gallons of fine wood ashes). Then cover with straw and canvas.
Start discing the ground in April, turn it to a pulpy powder. Didnt much matter what the soil test said, it got 1000 pounds of ammonium nitrate and a ton of 5-10-15 per acre. We always got Prowl and Ridomil Gold added to the fetilizer. The morning before setting sit down on a bucket beside the plant bed and pull plants, roll up in a burlap feed sack, I still have my dads sacks from the 50's. 40 bags to the acre (7600 plants) Setting time (two people on the transplanter per row, place every plant by hand. Setter water got 8 gallons of 7-14-7 liquid and a pound of orthene per acre.
I used a 2 row setter so 4 people setting, one following on foot for resets, and one driving the tractor. 2 acres a day after pulling plants was a good day. Plow (cultivate) with a 1 or 2 row cultivator at least 4 times and chop out at least once with a hoe.
At the end of 4 weeks spray again with orthene. At 60-75 days spray again with MH 30 (growth regulator and orthene) and break the flowers out each and every plant, by hand). Drop sticks (48 inch long 1x1 red oak), every other row, every 3 plants, 1200 per acre. At 21-28 days after topping start walking with your tobacco knife. Cut two rows at a time and spear 3 plants from each row on a stick,using a steel srear end you carry in your other hand leave the stick standing up in the field. A good cutter cuts 1000 sticks a day for 12 cents a stick. In less than one or more than 3 days pick up the sticks and load onto a flat wagon (hayrack). Immediately hang in the barn. Takes one person standing on each rail and one pushing up off the wagon. 14 sticks per 12 feet of linear rail.
Manage barn ventilation to control curing. When cured, 6-8 weeks usually drop sticks out of the barn on a damp morning when the tobacco has taken up enough air moisture to not be brittle. Pile and pull the sticks covering in plastic. Most barns had a stripping room attached to strip or pull the leaves off the stalk, 3 grades, and press into a bale. 270-300 man hours per acre, and I dont miss a minute of it.
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Today's Featured Article - Harvestin Hay: The Early Years (Part 2) - by Pat Browning. The summer of 1950 was the start of a new era in farming for our family. I was thirteen, and Kathy (my oldest sister) was seven. At this age, I believed tractor farming was the only way, hot stuff -- and given a chance I probably would have used the tractor, Dad's first, a 1936 Model "A" John Deere, to go bring in the cows! And I think Dad was ready for some automation too. And so it was that we acquired a good, used J. I. Case, wire tie hay baler. In addition to a person to drive th
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