pipe tobacco

[vbetts]

I guess this could go in a couple of places, but since it is just a quote from a period source, I'll put it here--

SOUTHERN ILLUSTRATED NEWS, August 1, 1863, p. 32, c. 1
To Correspondents.
"An Inveterate Smoker" inquires concerning the best brands of Havana cigars and all about pipes. As an "inveterate smoker," he ought to be fully informed upon these subjects, but we have no objection whatever to give him what knowledge we have gathered from reading and experience. Of Havana cigars, we believe that the brand of Cubana of Carjaval is in best repute. His "weeds" obtained the first prize in the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, and have ever since commanded the highest prices. They are mostly put up in boxes of one hundred each, and the mere smell of them upon lifting the lid of the box is enough to run an "inveterate smoker" distracted in these days of the blockade. Next to the Cubana stands the Partagg, which is even preferred by some consumers, and of which, like the Cubana, there are three grades of excellence—firsts, seconds and thirds—and three varieties of color: dark brown, medium and light brown. Then we have the Figaro, a glorious after-dinner companion, of which the larger quantity manufactured are "pressed" in shape. These are known as genuine by a representation of the jolly Figaro of the opera, smoking, burnt into the top of the box lid with a hot iron brand. None of these superior cigars are for sale in the tobacco shops of Richmond. Occasionally we have seen a Cubana or a Figaro in the hands of an amateur who had a friend on board the Giraffe or the Antonica, but they have wholly disappeared from the Southern market. Before the war they used to sell at from $80 to $100 a thousand; now they might, perhaps, be retailed at any price from 75 cents to one dollar and a half apiece.
As for pipes, we are reluctant to enter upon the subject, for fear of being drawn into a dissertation, and our remarks becoming, like the clouds that issue from pipes, voluminous. Whole volumes, indeed, might be written of the meerschaum, the hookah, the narghile, the porcelain, the common clay, the dudeen, the briar-root, the corn-cob, and then of the smoking tobacco in its endless varieties of Jatakia, Perrique, Old Virginia, &c., &c.
Sublime tobacco, which, from East to West,
Cheers the tar's labors and the Turkman's rest.
The meerschaum, we believe, is omnium consensu, the prince of pipes, when made of the genuine Trieste article and furnished with veritable amber mouth-piece. But there are those who, having smoked the pipe of peace and the pipe of war, and qualified themselves to sit in judgment upon the comparative excellency of all kinds of pipes, declare without hesitation that the Powhatan clay pipe is above and beyond all others. The corn-cob, if finished by the hand of an artist, is a delicious and very beautiful pipe, and has the merit of being easily procurable, everywhere. As for the briar-root, which some dealers have the audacity to sell at ten, fifteen and twenty dollars, it is in our judgment a poor thing, and will not long enjoy its present popularity. With so much of palaver, we dismiss the matter, hoping to enjoy a puff or two with our correspondent when business or pleasure may bring him to Richmond.

Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Farming: Tobacco

This is a pretty interesting site about the development of tobacco: http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sectio...ke/tobacco.htm

Washington Duke is discussed on other pages on the website. Some may know that Duke was somewhat of a North Carolina tobacco tycoon in his own respect, a very self-made man. Despite being a Unionist he and one of his sons fought very briefly during the war (enlisted late 1863/early 1864).

Thought this would interest those of us who particularly portray Southerners and tobacco being on of the cash crops of the South, we'd all benefit from more knowledge about the "golden leaf." :-)

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Farming: Tobacco

Emmanuel, thank you for calling this to our attention.

My mother's family has had a continuous tobacco allotment on one parcel since 1803. If you want to know anything about the yeoman farmer give me a shout. My grandparents still farm own and inhabit the original site. One outbuilding used to grade tobacco today dates to 1770.

The Duke Brothers did everything in their power to break the back of many five to ten acre farmers and sharecroppers.

The Duke site the State maintains is very clean historically, not dwelling on the plight of slaves, poor whites and the small-acre farmers they worked to the bone.

The modern University that bears their name cringes every time their namesake’s history is exposed.They refuse to accept the role tobacco and tobacco farming had in their metamorphosis from Trinity College

If you are serious about living history in North Carolina then you need to know about the Leaf as Emmanual correctly commented, for it, like the war, affected the lives of every resident of the State.

[SparksBird]

Re: Farming: Tobacco

Emmanuel,
Thanks for posting the information. Tobacco is an interesting crop. However, most people automatically think "cigarettes bad" and really leave it at that. We actually grow tobacco at our site up here in Ohio. The Miami Valley was a productive tobacco growing area. Our tobacco is Conn. Seed Leaf which was used for cigars. The whole process of tobacco preparation and planting from beginning to end is a fascinating one.

Rick Musselman
Buckeye Mess
GHTI

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Farming: Tobacco

The whole process of tobacco preparation and planting from beginning to end is a fascinating one.

Rick, you are so right. The crop is rich in history. I wish I could share my experiences about working in tobacco when I was younger with the forum members.
There were some steps and traditions in the process that had changed very little over the last one hundred fifty years.

[SparksBird]

Re: Farming: Tobacco

I remember several years ago, Land Between the Lakes was doing a whole series of programs on tobacco. One process that hasn't changed much was that they were actually burning their beds to prepare the soil. This would make for a great demonstration for the public. We actually do it a little differently. At our site we actually steam the beds using a steam engine. Nevertheless, tobacco farming can make for good first person. I could probably go on for days talking about it.

Rick Musselman
Buckeye Mess
GHTI

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Farming: Tobacco

Here are a few observations from my experiences...Bright Leaf was grown in the Peidmont and Coastal Plain of South East States.

Growing bright-leaf tobacco in the 1860's required long hours of work. During the winter, the plant bed was prepared by burning and cultivation. Burning helped sterilize the soil, decreasing the chances of insects and weeds damaging growing seedlings. Afterwards the seeds were sown and covered with small broken branches or bushes to protect them from frost. Winter was also the time when fields were prepared for planting in May. Debris was cleared and the soil was fertilized. When the ground dried, the field was plowed several times and a peg-tooth harrow was used to break up the soil even more. When possible, soda ash was broadcast by hand to “sweeten” the soil.

In May, seedlings would have reached a foot in height and could be transplanted into the field. One at a time, workers carefully removed seedlings from the seed beds. Other workers in the field used a peg to create holes in the soil where the seedlings were placed.

Throughout their growth cycle, tobacco plants needed constant attention. Topping and suckering were two methods used to aid growth. When tobacco plants reached the height of two to three feet, plants were topped. Topping involved cutting off the top portion of the plant so the remaining leaves could receive a full supply of nutrients. Suckering followed topping. New shoots or suckers would grow at the base of the portion of the plant that had been topped. These new shoots or suckers took nourishment from the other growing leaves, so they were removed.

Worms were a constant threat to tobacco plants. Worming techniques included removing them by hand and allowing turkeys and guinea fowl to eat them.

Tobacco plants that survived were ready to be harvested in late August to early September. Ripened bright-leaf tobacco appears spotted and curled at the tip of the leaf. A trained eye could find ripe leaves. During the 1860's, the crop was cut entirely by hand. A small curved knife was used to split each plant from the top down to three inches above the bottom. The entire plant was then cut off below the split, inverted and placed on the ground between the rows of plants. The stalks were collected by other workers and placed on tobacco sticks. The sticks were 4 to 4 1/2 feet long and each held seven or eight stalks of tobacco.

Tobacco must be cured before it is manufactured into tobacco products. Bright-leaf tobacco is flue-cured in a curing barn. During the 1860's, many flue-cured tobacco barns in North Carolina contained brick furnaces and long rolled tin flues. A metal flue or pipe was used to circulate hot air, generated by the convection of the furnace or burner, throughout the hanging tobacco.

When tobacco stalks reached the curing barn, workers fastened the stalks onto sticks with twine. The sticks were arranged on poles that stretched from one side of the barn to the other. Once the barn was full of leaves, a fire was built in the furnace and curing began. Curing continued for several days. The fire was tended constantly. Temperatures were increased steadily to dry the leaves completely until they reached a lemon-yellow color. Once curing was completed, the barn doors were open to add some moisture back into the leaves.

Cured leaves were stored in a pack house before being taken to the market. In the pack house the leaves were graded or sorted into groups according to quality. Next they were bound into bundles called hands. During storage and grading, a pit underneath the barn was used to 'order' the tobacco. Tobacco leaves were said to be in 'order' once they absorbed moisture and became pliable enough for manufacturing."

The attachment displays young Burley grown in Rick's area. To the casual observer this tobacco crop would look much the same as it did during the second half of the Nineteenth Century.

[vbetts]

Texas tobacco

Evidently the topic of tobacco growing could prompt one to wax poetic even during the war. How does this match with more modern practices?

[HOUSTON] TRI-WEEKLY TELEGRAPH, December 15, 1862, p. 2, c. 4
Tobacco Seed—Virginia, Havana, Creole, in papers of fifty cents, one dollar, two dollars. The season for sewing [sic] is December and January. Sent by mail free of postage.
James Burke.

GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS, March 1, 1865, p. 1, c. 3
Independence, Texas.
Mr. Editor:--In compliance with your request I write a short article on the culture of tobacco—born and reared in the midst of that region which supplies Richmond, Petersburg and Lynchburg with their choice leaf for manufacturing chewing tobacco, and having grown and manufactured it myself for twenty-five or thirty years, I herewith give you, in substance, the method approved and generally observed, when (as a refugee) I was driven from my home and occupation as a tobacconist. Tobacco is grown for export and for home manufacture and consumption. For the first, or shipping tobacco, the various kinds of seed producing the largest, heaviest, coarsest leaf is preferred—not adapted to home use—and is cured by firing or heavy smoking in tight closely daubed and chinked barns, thus the oil of the leaf is so thoroughly dried or crystalized as to resist the dampness of a sea voyage. To us, this kind of tobacco and mode of cure is not now applicable; for the kind suitable to us, the three varieties of the prior, the white stem or the orinoco are preferred. They produce a leaf less bitter, with less nitre and much milder, of smaller finer fibre and more silky texture. The last or Onnoko [both names transcribed as written] has been long preferred as being the sweetest leaf. Great care should be used in preparing and sowing seed beds, so as to destroy all grass and weed seed, and that the plants be not two [sic] thick to thrive and have good body and shape, else they live badly when transplanted (being too spindling) and produce an unthrifty plant, with long shank (or body) and few narrow and scattering leaves equally troublesome as a good plant and much inferior in quality and quantity. Hence tobacco seed is measured before sown, and the number of square yards in the bed computed. The pipe bow or table-spoon has been always the unit or standard of measure—a common full sized tablespoon, filled to heaping by dipping up the seed, is ample to sow a bed twenty feet square, which should yield plants enough for ten acres, which is a full crop for four hands in Virginia—the worming, succoring and housing or saving, being the burden of the crop. The seed should be thoroughly mixed with one or two gallons (the more the better) of finely [fold in paper] dry ashes [fold in paper] sown carefully or cross-sown. The best land for beds is rich, moist (not wet) branch flats (not alluvial) thick grown with brushwood and long covered with leaves, the soil of a close, tight character, not spongy, puffy or loose when dry. This is very necessary in windy, drying, Texas—chop down all the small growth just under the surface and cut down all the large timber, clean and rake off the bed-spot nicely and let the sun dry it well, then burn it well and uniformly to destroy weed and grass seed, wash off all the ashes and brands from the burning, loosen or chop the soil deeply (not turning it over) and closely with grubbing hoes, chopping and taking out all small roots, re-chop or hoe finely the surface with weeding hoes, then rake off all clods and trash and avoid tramping the bed until sown; then the sowing may be well done and uniform. Lay off the bed two ways in narrow lands and sow high and regularly and patiently—this done trench around as security against any wash, then with the broadest, flattest, heaviest shoes at your command have the bed closely and heavily tramped, and lastly cover the bed so as nearly to hide the land with large leafless brush and await the result. For the tobacco field new ground is preferable; it should be productive and dry or well drained; very rich land produces an article too large and coarse and is more apt to damage on the hill and must be cut before it is ripe. The land should be well broken and hilled up in good order, if not too dry, a very heavy rain is well as for a season. The usual distance for hills is three feet three inches each way, yet three feet one way and three and a half feet the other gives the advantage of the wide way in chopping and worming and succoring. New ground in tobacco should never be ploughed after planting as pulling the roots destroy too many plants. Hence, the necessity for thorough preparation. Old land, though fine and rich for corn or cotton, should have a little manure in the hill, to start off readily the tender plant, else it may stand for weeks without growing.
But to return. When the leaves in the plant-bed are as large as dollars, the bed must be uncovered, and when the body of the plant is two inches long, you can plant if a season. The bed must be wet, to draw the plants well, which is best done one plant at a time and the largest, finest, and where too thick, let the first drawing thin them out. In planting, just leave the bud out, and if the plants are too old and long, give them an oblique planting, down to the bud. When the plant is large, top it, which is best done by pinching out the button, or bunching seed bud, before it begins to new up. Next, weekly the suckers must be taken off when small and tender. Four or five crops of suckers and the plant ripens, which is indisputably known by the disappearance of all the furze from the top of the leaf, a better indication than color, breaking of leaf, speck spots, etc. When the upper side of the leaf is perfectly smooth, it is ripe, as is generally the case with the forest leaf. Tobacco gets its weight and quality in ripening. The sap is then converted into oil, which, when perfect exudes and appears in small dark specks on the leaf. When tobacco is cured, (if ripe) this oil (unlike the sap in green tobacco) remains and gives weight and virtue to the weed, and which when volatile in the pipe, puffs dull care away. The bud and horn worms should be hunted once a week, so as to kill the egg, or the worm very young. The name of the first, marks his position, the latter is best caught soon in the morning or on cloudy days, for if not caught till grown, during sunshine, he hides in the hills. When you think the plant is ripe, wait till it begins to waste before you cut. Split midway down the stalk before you cut it from the hill, thus it will straddle the stick well and dry and come up much sooner. If the weather be hot sunshine, cut in the cool of the evening and pick up in the morning, else the hot sun will burn the plant, which is as bad as frost bite. Put the plants then on sticks, (not longer than 4 ¼ feet) crowd them on a scaffold, (better near your shelter or house.) In two or three days, the leaves yellow and almost bleach, then open to the sun and let it dry. Watch against showers—if about to rain or the dews are too heavy, put it under shelter or in the open houses and there let it remain, secure from rain, direct or directing, and seeing that it is not too much corroded [crowded?] to cure regularly by the air—no firing, smoking or doctoring. This is the whole process for air curing or sun curing, from which comes all our fine, sweet chewing tobacco. Take off the coal cured yellow wrapper from the fine plug, and the balance is the sweet, rich, oily, ripe, mahogany, sun or air cured, leaf, from which the nectar flows. Before cutting, a few dirty, sandy, gritty leaves should be pulled off and thrown away, that the balance be not soiled by them. When thoroughly cured, stem and all, then strip off and bundle the leaves in from 15 to 20 in a "bind," putting similar leaves in each bundle and each variety by itself, and then you classify your chewing and smoking tobacco, and thus you can have your choice of the various qualities. But after it is stripped, rehang the different qualities separately, hoist them as high up in your shelter as you can, and let them soften and dry, (or come in and go out of order.) Frequently with the changes of the weather and the acridity and newness is removed and the character of the article much improved, and when you would pack it down, do so when it is coming in order, which is when the leaf is supple, (or it will not break,) and the large part of the stem breaks even below the middle. Lap the bundle half across each other, in a straight, close bulk, with the heads out, and then labors and care can be given place to the solace that the luscious treasure is safe, and when the full, merry, cracking fire of winter glows, and you see that the big back log is on, while you are volatilizing the fruits of honest, ruddy labors away and dissolving sights and cares into empty nothingness, fancy will revert, in pity, to the fate and days of Orpheus, which lack this magic theme for song:
O, weed, divine—
Great solace mine!
Whilst I repine
O'er days, Lang Syne!
J.A.D.

GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS, March 1, 1865, p. 2, c. 6
Gonzales County, Texas, Feb. 4, 1865.
Editor News:--I send herewith a few practical instructions concerning the raising of tobacco plants, which, in the absence of others more meritorious, may prove acceptable. I have often tried the plan laid down and it never entirely failed. Tobacco is a plant that requires much attention, and that precisely at the right time. I am of the opinion that a tolerably fair article of tobacco can be raised here, if the proper attention be given to the subject. Of course no one expects to make an A No. 1 article.
Very respectfully yours, J.W.F.


Tobacco Culture.

Gonzales County, Texas, Feb. 4, 1865.
Editor News:--In your issue of the 30th ult., you invite information concerning the successful raising of "Tobacco Plants," and having spent several years of my life in farming in the tobacco region of Va., I send you the following plain directions, being incompetent to the task of writing an elaborate article on the subject.
1st. Select a low, moist situation—generally found near creeks and ravines—cover it with wood to the depth of 18 inches and burn the land well, taking care not to stir it before burning, as the grass seed will thus fail of being entirely destroyed, which the burning is intended to accomplish. Next, manure well with the droppings from sheep, slaked ashes, or manure from the barn-yard, if well decomposed, and turn under with the spade, to the depth of eight inches. After having cleared the bed thus formed of all extraneous matter and raked it well, sow a medium sized tablespoonful of seed to every two hundred square feet of surface. If you run late in the season, sow one fourth less, and if early, you may add as much more. Sow entirely around the bed adjacent to the tobacco plants, a row of mustard seed, one foot in width, as it not only serves to attract the attention of the flies and bugs, (the great enemies of tobacco plants) it being their favorite diet, but gives the planter timely warning of the danger near. Next, tramp or roll the bed until it is quite compact, and then be sure that it is covered closely and perfectly as possible with the smallest and straightest branches of trees or with undergrowth, which is better, especially if covered with leaves; if not, scatter a few over the bed before putting the brush on. Put sufficient weight on the brush to keep it permanently in place. The brush covering is intended to maintain an even temperature upon the bed and to protect the young plants from the inroads of insects, and should be allowed to remain until the plants are free from this danger, which is generally about the time their leaves are a half inch in width. After the brush is removed, should the plants be attacked by insects, first sprinkle the plants with water and then soot, and put the covering back for a few days, which is the best remedy I am acquainted with, of a simple nature. Should the weather become dry, occasionally irrigate in the evening. J.F.W.
P.S.—Any kind of seed will suit, except the kind known as "Brazilian or Havana tobacco seed," which I deem of a character too light and poor to make good tobacco.
J.F.W.

GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS, March 15, 1865, p. 2, c. 2
Independence, March --, 1865.
Ed. News:--My article on tobacco (hastily written to hand a friend just leaving for Houston) omits points on which I have since been questioned, viz: Time of seeding beds, transplanting, cheapest mode of sheltering, &c. My answers will accord with the usage of Virginia and Carolina. Begin with Spring vegetation, as for garden seed-beds. Prepare and sow succession of beds, that you may have plants of suitable age and size to meet the various seasons and your successive preparations for planting, as do potatoe [sic] slips by a welcome repetition to each drawing. Failing in earlier beds, I once raised a good yield of tobacco, planted from beds sown on the 3d day of May. So the time is much extended where frost sometimes occurs in September. February, March and April beds supply May, June and July plantings. Even the 1st of August (with good seasons and a proper, not high, topping,) I have known not too late for a fair yield to be secured in October. As with cabbage,--though not too thick in beds,--tobacco plants often (for want of seasons) become overgrown, and thus crowded, assume a splindling, long-jointed body, with few leaves, long, narrow and large fibre, and of poor yield, which shape no future cultivation can correct—as the plant, so the growth, is a law herbal. Just the right sized and shaped plant will give the most leaf in proportion to the stem and stalk. Long and narrow beds on constant water (and if kept as standing beds), underlaid with manure each fell, and lightly reburnt every Spring, are the best reliance. If heavily brushed, you can thoroughly water (without washing) and hasten sprouting and future growth, to be suspended if danger of over-growth. In burning, the first row should be propped up so that the large or out ends will alone touch the bed.
The next rows so overlaps (as shingling) that a treble or even heavier covering is made, and thus the moisture and closeness of the bed is preserved, and but little of its surface touched. A leaf flat on the bed often destroys the tender sprout. When the plants shade the bed, remove the brush, that drying air and full sunshine may toughen the plants for the ordeal of transplanting. In a bad season, the process is called cloding, viz: the bud with leaves bunched over it, bent northward, with a firm clod laid on it for 3 or 4 days) is often pursued with success. Watering and planting is also sometimes necessitated. For sheltering, common sheds, log-cabins and out houses (if open) with bearing poles (tiers) across in body or roof, placed 6 inches nearer together than length of sticks, and never closer than three feet above each other. The tobacco on separate sticks (after being crowded and yellowed on the scaffold) should not touch while curing or drying, a free ingress and passage of air being desirable. When the stem is fully cured, two or three sticks can be hung on one, and when it is stripped and bundled, the same houses hold six times as much, and thus but little room is required to secure it from the long damp of winter and spring. The rail or pole pen suits the unprepared tobacco grower best, built not on the ground but on a platform elevated over 3 feet. Select a level structure spot; place large sawn 30 feet blocks on end, ranging one way—in distance—to suit length of rails or small poles; the other way 20 or 30 feet to suit length of the large, stiff, straight platform or foundation logs, which are well flattened on each end, and placed steadily on the blocks, and on these blocked up logs, extended continuously (the foundation being well squared) beginning at one end, the first pen is raised as usual. Each pen should be 14, 20, or 25 feet apart, to secure ample interspace or gap, which covered over with roof continuous with that of pens, and with tiers or bearing poles supported by 1st and 2d pens.—With the building of each pen you gain much more room by the interspace. The roof should have some slope and be weighted.
The elevation on blocks is so much gained in height of pen, the lowest tobacco being best supported on the platform logs, and they making the best scaffold on which to crowd and yellow the tobacco prior to hanging it thin in the pen above for curing. Also the tobacco is passed under these logs no doors (the main trouble) being needed. These pens can be placed in the yard, under the watch of good old Tray, and the whole structure if desired (the boards and rails if used, being excepted) can make the winter's wood-pile. It is proper I should correct a few material errors (typographical) in my first article, for which my hurried illegible penning is wholly responsible. I place them in parenthesis, or repeat the idea, if more convenient. "Push" (not wash) off brands, ashes," &c. "If hilled or bedded too dry, a heavy rain is required for a season." "Top before it begins to run (not new) up." "Split stalk midway and it will dry and cure (not come) up much sooner." "Put the plants thin (not then) on sticks, secure from rain direct or drifting, and we see, that it is not too much crowded" (not corroded.) I omit some trivial errors preceding these, not calculated to mislead in practice, though obscuring thought and deranging expression, and also a succeeding of similar character; and even so naughty as to inflict the reader with the pseudo-blepsis, and have him dissolving sights instead of sighs and cares away. Fancy's sketch was thus marred, by my haste to finish with a smoke. And alas! alas! the wayward creature has seized my pen again.
And vows she'll have her fill before I rise,
Though heart sick grows from smoke deferred,
And tears overwhelm my eyes,
and thus indites:
Dear reader, if thou knowst the weed—
Not in Botanic lore I mean—
(Though nothing in the flowery mead,
Or Flora's realm, is gaudier seen.)
But hast thou seen it ground to dust,
In tortoise box, with Tonqua bean,
When circling mops are in it thrust,
Honored alike by maid and Queen?
Didst thou e'er take a wee-bit pinch
With grand-sire, grand-ma or old chum?
And feel drawn to them, inch by inch,
Until thou couldst no nigher come?
Hast thou e'er seen the social bowl
Upon the center-table placed?—
(Not that which quaff'd dethrones the soul
And makes man never more debased)—
I mean the glorious family pipe,
For six or eight at once to draw,
When friendship, love and joy, all ripe,
Puff care away, as 'twere a straw?
If thus the King, of weeds thou knowest,
Would'st stop the Czar to ask a quid;
Or, being Czar, would'st feel thou owest
The chew in need, as 'twere God's bid?
Dost feel that here all spirits meet?—
Parade, and pomp and pride are stuff—
As fellows, we'll each other greet;
The balance is not worth a puff!
If thus thou know'st, evoke Meerchaum;
We'll puff each other to the skies!
If not, learn not; the Siren's charm
Allures the simple, not the wise.
Fancy's freak indulged, and neurine equilibrium duly restored by the luxurious specific, I greet my companion, J. F. W., of Gonzales. The Brazile [sic] and Havana, (noted by you) stand pre-eminent with smokers. Those mentioned by me, viz: either of the three prior—the white stem and Orinoko rank all other chewing. A genuine article (Orinoko seed) can be procured at Burke's seed store, Houston; of A. S. Wright, (Baker's & Ewing's) Brenham, and Wilson & Camp's, in Navasota. I will propose to the cognoscenti of the weed, (and hope J. F. W. will concur,) that, with the close of next All Fool's Day—(for 'tis said we are wisest after folly)—that we associate together as the "Circle of Charity," with the weed as a badge; its accredited influence (as Heliotrope to sun) always tending towards that Superlative Grace, without which all else is but sounding brass and tinkling cymbal, what results might not obtain were we ever and closely to pursue those mellowed, generous reflections of which the weed is more inspiring than Ambrosia e'er could boast.
While puffing, who, with soul so dead,
That never to himself hath said—
(As smoke rose circling o'er his head)—
"Earth is Vanity's vapid bed!"
Whose heart doth not to God-ward tread?
Grand cause! on whom all worlds depend!
Guard us and love, forgive, befriend;
Its fragrance will betoken e'er
"Sweet incense" burnt by Priestly seer,
But now, sweet savours only, are
A votive heart with love and fear,
And, as the watching, thoughtful eye
Sees wide'ning volumes upward fly,
"Our Circle of (sweet) Charity"
Should ever thus expanding be.
And when, at last, in ashes, must
The puffing end—so earthly trust,
Alike, is doomed. All was (at erst)
Of joy and love—an endless burst
In praise to God—till Evil first
To trespass Eden's threshold durst,
And brought life's woes—of all, the worst
That whence he sprang, frail man is cursed,
Returning ever—dust to dust. J.A.D.

GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS, April 19, 1865, p. 1, c. 6

Gonzales County, March 5, 1865.
Ed. News:--It is rather a difficult matter to give directions for extemporizing machinery for the manufacture of tobacco, and describe the process, and at the same time, make oneself fully understood. Ocular demonstration alone will subserve this end. Preparations for manufacturing tobacco in good style, would be attended with too much trouble and expense at this time, and hence my reasons for making at home, all the necessary preparations for "putting it up" in a second rate manner.
1st. The "prize" or compressing power may be made by cutting a large mortise through a medium size tree, 10 or 12 inches in length and about 6 in diameter; then take 15 or 20 feet of a small tree, and cut a tenon on the butt end that will fit loosely in this mortise; this will serve for your "prize."
2d. Have a strong box made, and well braced by clasps on all its sides, one of which must be left without being nailed on, and underneath your lever, near the tree, make a firm platform for the box to sit on.
3d. Have your tobacco in "good case;" stem it, and make into rolls two inches in thickness, and equal in length to the width of the box. This rolling process I can't describe, so as to be fully comprehended. Most men will have no difficulty about it, I presume. Next, expose your rolls to the sun until they are dry enough to compress without crumbling; then put them into the box, each layer as close as possible, and across one another, until the box is filled, then put in the head of the box, and let the weight of the lever upon it, by means of blocks under the lever, and suspend weight to the end of the lever, until the rolls are reduced to one-fifth of their original thickness. Then take out the tobacco, and grease each plug with a flannel cloth saturated with sweet oil. In manufacturer's parlance, this is called "pressing," and if a very thin, smooth piece of plank were placed between each layer, they would add much to the smoothness of the "plugs." Now, nail the remaining side of the box, put in the tobacco as before, (I am presuming enough has been already "pressed" to fill your box) leaving out the thin planks, if used, and again put on your weight until the plugs are about one-sixth or seventh of their original thickness. Nail in the head and the work is done.
I should have remarked that tobacco may be sweetened when desired, by dissolving sugar or liquorice, and sprinkling well the leaf before it is "stemmed." The liquorice must be dissolved over a slow fire. Much sweetening blackens tobacco, and causes a tendency to mould.
If these directions are closely followed, and your tobacco prove deficient, you may attribute the defects to the inferiority of the article used, as no "fine" tobacco can be raised in a country where but little dew falls during the season for ripening. Heavy dews give weight and richness to tobacco, and the flavor is produced by successful firing or curing. J. F. W.

GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS, April 19, 1865, p. 3, c. 6
Gonzales Co., Texas, March 25, 1865.
Ed. News:--Having given you directions for raising tobacco plants, it may not be unprofitable, at this time, to go a step farther, and give you directions for cultivating and curing the staple.
If you wish to raise an article of mild quality, not too coarse and strong for home use, select, if practical, a tolerably thin soil, (new land greatly to be preferred,) and after having thoroughly broken it up, lay it off into rows four feet apart, and have your tobacco hills made upon these furrows at a distance of three and a half feet. The hills should be about one-half the size of potato hills, free from clods, leaves &c. Bear in mind that sandy land will not suit for tobacco; I need not stop to give reasons. Any time during the latter part of April or the month of May, when your hills are damp enough, and the larger leaves of your plants have attained a diameter of two inches, you may transplant, taking care not to press the earth too hard around the plants, thereby causing it (the earth) to "bake." Cover the plants with a small quantity of moss, leaves or grass, which will insure them to live. No further cultivation is necessary, until your plants are fifteen or eighteen inches in height and contain from fourteen to sixteen leaves, at which time you will skim off the surface of the hills and pull off from two to four of the leaves of all plants containing the number above mentioned, and pluck out the bud, leaving not more than eight or ten leaves. This is called "topping," which should be continued until every plant is topped, save those retained for producing seed. Keep your tobacco clear of weeds and grass with the hoe, and when the large green tobacco worms make their appearance, have them destroyed every three or four days. When your plants get well ripe, which may be known by the deep yellow, spotted and brittle appearance they assume, have them cut. This is done by splitting the stalk six or eight inches down, and then by cutting off near the ground. Let the tobacco lie where it is cut until it is well wilted, when it must be collected and hung upon sticks five or six feet in length; these sticks are then hung close together upon a scaffold just high enough to allow the tips of the tobacco leaves to touch the grass or weeds on the ground. Here the tobacco should hang until it attains a deep yellow color. This usually requires from four to seven days for ripe tobacco, longer for green.
Presuming that not enough tobacco will be raised by any one to justify curing it after the manner most approved in Virginia or North Carolina, I shall not trouble you with any account of that process; but suppose our Texas tobacco will be cured by the sun, and if so, it should be exposed to the sun by degrees, allowing the points of the leaves to dry first; this should be done slowly and gradually by separating it on the scaffold; it will require not less than two weeks to cure it well. There is danger of drying out all the essential properties of the weed, thus leaving it like much we see little better than chaff. When your tobacco is cured, leaf and stem, hang it carefully under a shelter, and there let it remain until it gets into case, at which time have the leaves stripped from the stalk, and then, it will be better to take the stem out of the leaf, as this prevents the latent sap, from leaving the stem and falling back into the leaf, thus greatly injuring it.
Your tobacco is now in using or manufacturing condition, but as I fear this article is already tedious, I must defer saying any thing on that process, and close.
I.F.W.
P.S. I omitted to mention the pulling off of all "sukers" before they get over two or three inches long. I.F.W.

Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net

[fidlr1]

Re: Farming: Tobacco

Rick, you are so right. The crop is rich in history. I wish I could share my experiences about working in tobacco when I was younger with the forum members.
There were some steps and traditions in the process that had changed very little over the last one hundred fifty years.

Back a few years ago I lived in E. Tennessee & worked in tobacco for extra $$$--indeed, many of these processes were exactly the same-the topping, cutting, hanging in barns--only change mechanization made was that people would use a tractor-drawn wagon to haul the crop to the barn to hang it.
It's some hard-a## work, that's for sure..

[SparksBird]

Re: Farming: Tobacco

One interesting hitch that we do in tobacco preparation, is a method used in the 1880s. We have an original portable steam engine that we use to steam the beds rather than burning them. The family here at our site had a Brownell Steam Engine as early as 1866. It is definitely a different way to do it.

Rick Musselman
Buckeye Mess
GHTI

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Farming: Tobacco

One interesting hitch that we do in tobacco preparation, is a method used in the 1880s. We have an original portable steam engine that we use to steam the beds rather than burning them. The family here at our site had a Brownell Steam Engine as early as 1866. It is definitely a different way to do it.

Rick Musselman
Buckeye Mess
GHTI

Rick, was this for steaming the seedling beds or the entire field?
Did they steam the beds to kill mold or fungus?

We (in the 19th century) would plant winter wheat and burn the grass after harvest or leave corn stalks in the field and then burn them prior to leaf cultivation. We did it it to add what we now know is nitrogen.
The old folks said that if we had snow they would scatter soda ash to sweeten the soil that the snow had leached.

Good stuff too Vicki. The air dried leaf is Burley.
It is still air-cured today.

[SparksBird]

Re: Farming: Tobacco

Garrison,
The steaming was actually done for the seedlings. It was to kill off any fungus that existed. The apparatus used for the steaming, kind of looks like an upside down trough. The house actually attaches right to it and an area of approximately 7'x3' is steamed at a time. Interesting enough, a local arboretum contacted us about steaming some of their flower beds which were infected with a fungus as well.
Which if anyone on here has never seen tobacco seed, you would actually be floored by how tiny it really is. I actually like to mix cornmeal with it to tell where it has been distributed.
There are several period varieties of tobacco still available today. If you have never grown it before, try planting some in the garden for the heck of it. If you are growing a small amount for your own use there is no problem.

Rick Musselman
Buckeye Mess
GHTI

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Farming: Tobacco

Here is our oldest barn, ca.1865.

[markmason]

Re: Farming: Tobacco

Emmanuel,
Thanks for posting the information. Tobacco is an interesting crop. However, most people automatically think "cigarettes bad" and really leave it at that. We actually grow tobacco at our site up here in Ohio. The Miami Valley was a productive tobacco growing area. Our tobacco is Conn. Seed Leaf which was used for cigars. The whole process of tobacco preparation and planting from beginning to end is a fascinating one.

Rick Musselman
Buckeye Mess
GHTI

I too became involved with the process of growing tobacco through Rick's program. This crop is VERY labor intensive to say the least. Tobacco is very rewarding, something you can look upon with envy as it cures.

Growing tobacco is not a simple process of planting and then waiting to harvest the end result. Before the advent of machinery and chemicals, this process had to be carried out one way, and that is by hand only. Suckers are new growths, or shoots of tobacco growing between the stalk and the main leaves. These have to be removed to keep the nutrients flowing to the main leaves on the plant. "Topping out" the tobacco involves the removal of the flower or "rose" and not allowing the plant to seed. Again, this accomplishes the same goal as suckering, and that is controlling the energy and redirecting it to leaf production, and not to reproduction of seed.

The maintenance of suckering and topping out the tobacco is a very labor intense process. Suckering can only be accomplished by walking the fields and removing them by hand often 3-4 times during a growing season as the plant attempt to grow ne shoots. If you do not remove the suckers, and allow them to grow, will definately result in a bushy plant bearing small low quality leaves. Today, chemicals are added, and tobacco is hybrid to eliminate the suckering process but, this was not the case during the 19th century.

Remember, don't forget about the all troublesome TOBACCO HORN WORM. If suckering does not get to you or your plants, the tobacco worm may. :wink_smil

Whew!.. just thinking about it makes me sweat! :p

[Enfilade]

Re: Farming: Tobacco

"This crop is VERY labor intensive to say the least."

"Today, chemicals are added, and tobacco is hybrid to eliminate the suckering process but, this was not the case during the 19th century."
:p[/QUOTE]


Or the 20th Century for that matter. I helped raise tobacco from ages 8-16. I've set it out, suckered, topped, pulled, worked the mules, sleds, and hung my share of barns. Labor intensive is a nicer verb than I used then.

When you start pulling at dawn and the morning dew gets you soaking wet by the end of the first row, then the heat of the Sun scorches you dry by Noon. You grab a tomato, or something to get you by and keep getting it. The sticks are strung with leaves so they hang down in a three tier barn similar to the one Garrison posted. It can be about 120+ degrees in the top. Barefooted and straddling the ridge poles running horizontal across the barn, you try not to slip and fall while someone on the ground hands you a strick at a time to hang. By dark you are exhausted from the humidity and shear labor.

Yeah, thanks for rekindling the memories fellas!

Mark Berrier
North State Rifles
combinations@northstate.net