Thanks for sharing a piece of farming history.

 

Brings back memories.

 

I remember going with my Grandad to the tobacco sales around here at the same
time most of those pictures were made.
Back then, I can remember, at least in this part of the country, who you knew on the sales
floor could mean the difference in getting top price, and not getting top price for your tobacco. Definitely brings back memories. I remember he always wanted those
hand ties neat and even with no stems uneven at all or sticking out the top of the tie.
I got pretty good at it, till they started accepting only baled tobacco.

 

A lot of politics and deal making happened during tobacco sales. I was fortunate to miss out on most of that and dodge a few bullets. Tying of flue cured tobacco ended in the late 60s to early 70s. Packing it as loose leaf in burlap sheets was much easier.

Baling replaced the sheets.

 

That does look easier than hand ties. Not much flu cured was raised in this part of the country. Most was burley tobacco. They stopped accepting burley hand ties and only
pressed bales around 1980. The pressed bales started in the mid 70's. I wish I had
filled a barn up with those old baskets. now people are buying them up and decorating with them. Who would have thought that?

 

Here's a few not as old flue cured pics from our tobacco days.

 

Never seen loose leaf in burlap before, we did burley tobacco hand tied and put on sticks, took it off of the sticks and packed it on baskets at the warehouse before sales.
I worked one winter in a tobacco warehouse in Louisville,Ky.
Followed the government graders around marking the grades for price support before the sale, after the sale I ran a fork lift breaking down the sold tobacco and staging it for shipment to different buyers.
Started at 7 am and usually finished 10:30-11 pm, sleep on a wooden bench in the farmers lobby, to far the drive the 60 miles home to sleep, worked five 15-16 hour days, off saturday and sunday.
Not many young people would do that today, I couldn't today!

Personally I don't miss anything about tobacco except maybe the check.

 

I have a couple of those baskets here. Flue cured was tied, hauled to the warehouse on sticks, and sold in baskets just as burley when I was a youngun. The change to loose leaf began in the late 60s, and just for a few sale days at the beginning of the marketing season. I remember farmers working hard to sell as much loose leaf as they could. It was easier, and put some money in their pockets earlier. Before loose leaf most all flue cured tobacco was stripped, or prepared for marketing after it was harvested and cured. In 1978 when we moved to the farm loose leaf was the only way it was sold.