Kentucky's tobacco crop withstands worst of the drought

(Kentucky.com) Conrado Olvera, armed with a tomahawk and a spear, moved in a decades-old rhythm.
Lean forward, cut down a stalk of burley tobacco with one sharp swing of the tobacco knife; skewer the stalk on a tobacco stick, being careful to avoid the needle-sharp metal tip; reach for the next stalk. Keep up the rhythm stick by stick, row by row, hour after hour, until the job is done.
This annual farm ritual is being played out again in Kentucky tobacco fields, as farm workers like Olvera get down to the laborious job of cutting and housing the state's burley crop. Continued