Tobacco days: Working on the farm in flue cured tobacco

 

(thepostsearchlight.com) ... There was a sound of the farmer’s steps crunching the young grass as he made footprints in the early morning dew on his way to the barn to care for the animals. With the wonder of God’s creation about to burst forth before him, he whispered to the morning air, “God has given us a fine day for gathering the third crop of tobacco.”

A much needed short rain shower the afternoon before had left a wet field for gathering what was called flue cured tobacco, but he knew this would make it cooler for the young school boys to prime or crop the large leaves. Teenage schoolboys and girls worked on the tobacco farms going all week from one farmer to another making their spending money and money for school supplies and clothes come that fall. Continued