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Tobacco and Rural Life in Kentucky by John Klee
Make no mistake about it, using tobacco products is harmful. The negative effect of tobacco needs to be noted because the effect on the Kentucky farmer has been largely positive for over a century. In fact, since the creation of the tobacco program over sixty years ago, the growing of tobacco and the financial certainty that went along with it has largely preserved the Kentucky family farm. In a state where most farms have a limited number of tillable acres, Kentucky has the fourth-largest number of farms in the country, around 88,000. Many of those farms exist because of the over-125,000 tobacco quotas in the state.
A tobacco quota has been a license to make money, a dependable amount of
money. Until the 1990s, the production of tobacco was largely a matter of
friends and family. The skills for growing tobacco were passed down from generation
to generation and everyone in the family knew who did what jobs best, be it
topping the plant properly, cutting, hanging, or a variety of other ìartsî
in the growing of tobacco. Those arts are evident in reviewing the growing
process.
In the fall and spring brush was gathered and limbs were collected. This
was a process in which the whole family could participate. The tobacco beds
were burned with this brush. This provided a "weed-free" bed to
grow the tobacco plants. The plants were ready for resetting in May, and once
again this was a family affair. Even younger children could ìpullî
plants. Before mechanical setters farmers had to wait for a ìseason,î
which meant a rain for a wet field. Many tobacco farmers used the signs of
the Zodiac, found in the almanac to plan their planting. Then the tobacco
was planted by hand or with a hand-held "jobber." Mechanical setters
came into use early in the century. They were first pulled by horses and mules.
Farmers took great pride in the excellence of their animals. Many could plow
and plant straight and true, without stepping on a plant. Setting was also
a process where women and children often provided the labor.
The growing season in the past also suited large farm families. Before herbicides
and pesticides, it was largely the boys of the family who had to hoe the crop
in the hot months of July and August. They also had to "sucker"
the plants and pull off and crush tobacco worms. When the plants in the field
have matured, the bloom is broken out as well as some of the top leaves. This
again is a family affair. "Topping" is a process that has different
approaches. The goal is to get the leaves remaining to be large and have the
best quality. Some farmers top "higher" by breaking out fewer leaves,
and some top ìlowerî by breaking out more leaves. Here again
farmers teach their children their own philosophy.
The cutting and housing of tobacco, around Labor Day, is when friends and
neighbors were necessary in the process. The work is hot, backbreaking, and
even dangerous. Generally it is an adult, male undertaking. Before the 1980s
it was also a job that farmers did not want just anyone to do. Farmers had
pride in how their tobacco was handled and hoped proper care would bring higher
prices. Experienced, skilled labor was desired. Long ago a special knife was
used, the stalk was split, cut at the bottom, and hung over the stick.
Today most of the stateís farmers use a tomahawk-style knife and a metal spear that is used to impale the plant. It was desired because how tobacco was handled affected the bottom line financially. In the field farmers wanted cutters who would not break off leaves or split out the stalks when putting them on the stick. But the cutter also had to be fast to be considered good. The standard of excellence is a thousand sticks a day, which translates into over five thousand plants cut down.
Another source of pride was that the sticks cut would remain standing in
the field, thus avoiding getting dirt on the tobacco. One farmer, obviously
not one known for speed, used a piece of wood as a mallet to pound the stick
into the ground. Some farmers taught young hands to push the stick in behind
the stump of a stalk that would help support the stick. Before the poundage
system, the tobacco farmer was told how many acres of tobacco he or she could
grow. That meant every leaf was important and after cutting down a field,
family members would walk the plot and pick up leaves. Farmers would hang
the leaves on a wire in the barn to cure.
Loading tobacco was an art. Farmers had different styles of loading, basically shingling it with the sticks being horizontal on the wagon or perpendicular. If a load fell, or wouldnít fit into the barn because of its height or width, if sticks broke, or the load didnít contain many sticks, the loader was sure to get teased by the rest of the help. The person loading also had to load so that unloading could be accomplished without stepping on the tobacco. Because loading was seen as easier than walking along the wagon and handing up the plant, older farmers usually took the challenge. When they accomplished their task successfully they would tease the others about what a good load it was, how many sticks it held, etc. The oldest farmer or sometimes a woman drove the tractor in this process.
Hanging is another of the arts of tobacco growing. Here again, particularly if the plants are big, it is necessary to shingle the sticks so the tails of the plants above donít hang into the stalks of the sticks below. Proper spacing of the sticks is important to prevent houseburn. This has to be kept in mind while working as quickly as possible. Barns are usually three or more tiers high, and being in the top of the barn to hang is hot and high, but easiest because the person there has to handle fewer sticks of tobacco. One or two people work at handing the tobacco off the wagon. Everyone up in the barn has to straddle the rails, bend over to grab the sticks, hang one or two rails, hand up sticks if they are on the lower rails, and except for the person at the top, get dust, moisture, and everything else shaken down on them as the tobacco is hung. Curing largely depends on the weather, but again some art is involved. Farmers will help the air curing by opening or closing the doors and shuttles found on tobacco barns. In western Kentucky there is actually some dark-fire-cured tobacco. Here the crop is harvested, barns are made tight, and small smoldering fires created to cure the tobacco. Many a visitor to the area has seen smoke coming out of these barns and has run to the farmhouse to warn the farmer that his barn was on fire.
After the tobacco cures in the barn, it is processed for marketing by the farmer. This process is called stripping. By the order of the leaves on the stalk and their quality, the leaves are pulled off and put together in grades. This is done in a shed, usually attached to a barn. From November and into the first three months of the years in times past, a passerby might see a lighted stripping room with smoke billowing out of a chimney. The farmer has a limited "window of opportunity" to strip the crop, since it has to be moist enough to handle, called "in case." Stripping provided an opportunity for family members and neighbors to discuss the crop, gossip, and generally have hours of conversation. Farmers of the past stripped out the crop into as many as ten or eleven grades in an effort to get the best price for the crop. Today some farmers strip the tobacco into one grade and three grades is an effective maximum. Stripping into so many grades and tying the tobacco in ìhandsî again allowed for skills no longer necessary in the age of baling the crop in fewer grades. A "hand" of tobacco was a group of leaves tied into a group by a leaf around the top. It was called a hand because it contained as many leaves as one could hold in their hand and then tie up. The hands were a skill that was seen as important because the presentation of the tobacco was believed to affect price. At the warehouse these hands of tobacco were arranged in a circular presentation on a basket. Baling reduced both the labor and attractiveness of tobacco on the auction floor.
The warehouses open early to receive tobacco, and the warehousemen are like politicians. They give the farmer selling with them free lunches and seed for next yearís crop. Half pints of whiskey as premiums have also been used as enticements to sell at this warehouse or that one. Farmers watched the process work on their crop. This included a grader who evaluates their tobacco, the warehouseman who says he will get them the best price, and the auctioneer and buyers who complete the process. One warehouseman told of a farmer who put his daughter on a pile of his tobacco while she sang the "Star Spangled Banner," and the buyers did their work.
The auction itself is seen as a quaint part of Kentucky rural life. It is much more complicated than that. Most of the buyers and auctioneers work on a circuit that starts in the flue-cured regions of the south where the crop is ready for sale in the early fall. After the warehouseman starts the auction by making a bid, the auctioneer begins his work. He is followed by the buyers, a few behind him and most across the piles of tobacco with a good view. The buyers are in a pecking order based on their buying records. Auctioneers each have their own style, and their chant has the effect of most chants. It is entertaining and hypnotic in a certain way. Since auctioneers work on a percentage, they move quickly and the most proficient desire to work in the biggest markets. The tobacco auction is not like auctions of other types. The auctioneer and buyers move along steadily with only an occasional stop. The top bid may be $1.81, but three buyers might hold up one finger to indicate $1.81 is their bid. The auctioneer "knocks off" that pile of tobacco to one of those three buyers, and later if the same thing happens "knocks off" another pile to one of the other buyers. In some years most tobacco has brought the same price, regardless of quality. In those years nearly all of the buyers are holding up their fingers at one price and the auctioneer ìallocatesî the crop based on the buyer records of the companies the buyer represents.
Buyers also bring their own skills to the auction. Companies have reputations for desiring various types of tobacco. A farmer or buyer might say "that is Philip Morris tobacco." The concept is that each company has its own blend in its product, cigarettes, and various amounts of different types of tobacco are required to produce the product. The buyers have to purchase the type of tobacco their company seeks and get enough of it. Farmers cannot predict what "type" of tobacco the companies want because it seems to vary over the years. One year red tobacco is in demand and next year it will be something else.
The buyers, and to a lesser extent the auctioneers, formally presented an aura of wealth and success. They traveled from warehouse to warehouse in an entourage, and for years the buyers had drivers. These drivers would often double-park outside the warehouse and just wait as the buyer went about his business. Because the buying season runs into January and February, one function was to keep the car warm. Company representatives would sometimes visit, again with their drivers and expense accounts. "Tobacco people" are welcome guests to the community as they stay in apartments, fill the motels, and eat in the restaurants. However this behavior was a stark contrast to many poor farmers who just got their biggest paycheck of the year. That check often would then go to the feed mill to pay off the bill, or the grocery that carried a ticket on the family for the year, or to make those postponed purchases such as farm machinery or family car.
Around the time of the Second World War and thereafter, the Kentucky farm landscape changed. Kentucky does have nearly 90,000 farms, but that is only a third of the number that were present on the eve of World War II. African American farmers, once a sizable number of Kentuckyís farmers, left the land, often pushed along by prejudices that worked against their success. Tenants left farms in droves, the average size of farms has doubled since the 1940 average of 78 acres, and farmers have gotten older.
The culture of tobacco growing is in constant change. Many farmers saw their profession as an art rather than a science. Much of that perception and many of the old skills and knowledge are gone forever.
