If children today had to help do hard manual labor like this, rather than play video games, the workforce would be far better!

I grew up in Eastern NC as well. In a small town called Lizard Lick. I loved riding around as a kid and enjoyed walking “sneaking” through the endless tobacco fields that where all around. Now the fields are grown up or the children that inherited these huge farms have sold out to developers. I wish I would have paid more attention to the old farmers growing up and showed some interest in this industry.

My kids spend 10 hours a day in the marijuana fields.

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@@pnwRC. I'm only 2 years old and I work 100 hours a week in a nuclear power plant, I wish more kids my age did that instead of playing video games

In Kentucky, when I helped my aunt & uncle harvest their tobacco farm, we also hung it on sticks to dry. The way they do it in this video seems like a LOT of extra work to harvest!

A lot of people did flu cured tobacco. Here in the piedmont of NC. "Bright leaf" We hand string the tobacco on to the sticks. And then we'd climb 25 or more feet up into the barn and hang it. But at least we had propane. Further back, they used wood. And many slept at the barn.

Yes that is the way we did it here in West Virginia. The way it was done in the video does seem like a lot of extra work. No heat in any of our barns. Just natural air drying.

@@pnwRC. The brightleaf made this way received a premium payout. It always demanded more money per pound.

@@Rick-wn5oh got it, thanks.

Our finest crop IMO is timber.

Yea good comment by mcpip

Cuba red,Virginia gold and wild Indian Ontario

Lot of intense hard work but I think it builds character I like to think it did me anyway sure made me stronger than most kids my age I think it hardens u so from then on nothing stands in ur way people nowadays wouldn't want to muck out a stall of manure and hay sure doesn't smell good at first but like my grandpa told me and it's true u get used to it after a while

Well snack my momma. I wanna shake you're hand. A person from Kentucky and Tennessee. Well my God dam dream came alive.

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I have got a 90 dollars and it is saturday night...hahaha

Hey man I wish health and prosperity it seems we loosing our elders more than ever and we need as much as we also do..look how u jus painted the picture of an entire era with jus a few words.The elders are indeed our libraries.

Oh yes indeed. From Rockingham NC. A Hopper right here.

I always got stuck on the top rafters of the barn where all the heat was. Glass of milk and a bologna sandwich for lunch. 7am to dark till the field was cleared.

Man 100$ don't get ya far on a Saturday night now. Even if you stay home.

Like you said, if you can work in tobacco without passing out you can do anything

Did you ever pin a footer for a residential building, with internal and external corners, that had 150 corner points? We set up on every point and turned 90’s…set up on every point and every previous point to get zero. I would rather work tobacco than do that. You ever do a boundary survey and topo survey on a 600 acre property with heavy timber? I’m talking 50 property corners, wetlands, cutting line everywhere you go, and an elevation shots every 50 feet. I would rather work tobacco. I have HORROR STORIES from being Land Surveyor.

Yeah, by midday you get all sticky and gummed up. Hard as hell on the back also.

@@redstone1999 In 1982, at the age of 23, I decided to join the Navy. Because I was going in under a special program, I had about 7 months to await Boot Camp. Since I was starting to get a little soft, I decided to go back and work in tobacco for the summer. Then run every afternoon. The short story is Boot Camp was a absolute breeze compared to farm work. I do have to admit, all the standing around in ranks was hard on my feet.

@@Rick-wn5oh There is a reason the military love recruiting farm guys and gals. And most can shoot like an expert marksman. If you see a farm worker run, you better start running also. We do not run unless there is an emergency. LOL

@@redstone1999 Well I did manage to get my expert ribbon with the M1911A1 and the M-16. Not easy to do in the Navy. Good times.

@@Rick-wn5oh I joined the Navy in 81. Boot camp in Orlando.

HM Dickson.........My mom always said the way you deal with is you hit him across the forehead with a 2 by 4, then once you have his attention................

And he might wait ten years to get back at you LOL!! And when a mule was done working you were too but a mule was twice a worker then your normal horse.

@@markyegge644 She thought you were discussing your father. 😉

Actually, you whack em in the balls to make them listen.

Every single bit of wisdom in this thread is honest truth,gospel lol mules have big asses and bigger egos

My Grandparentswho had come to usa in 1914, and she in 1924

We used those worms for cat fishing!!

I cut timber in western NC for about 2 years & saw a whole lot of small tobacco fields way up away from highways & towns.

I worked my last harvest in 63 south east of Courtland , that's between Tillsonburgh & Delhi. You haven't lived till you started priming at 7 am in a field wet from the dew , soaked in the morning cooked in the afternoon.

@@kenkent4718 Right,but back than you might have walked the fields.As a kid I remember going to the farm and watching the process.Horses and boats were still used back than in the sixties.We had the luxury of riding priming machines,back than still Last time I worked a tobacco field was in the late 70s..Ached from the priming n lifting. I also got to hang tobacco when the hanger didn't show up.It was a good way to earn money before school started.We were exempt from school until the harvest was done.If we had a job n proof of it.

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Do you grow it for your own use? Of so, could you give a short explanation of how to do it? I want to start growing my own to use. Thank you for your time!

Not too much to love here.

My family did it both ways but I preferred whole plant and sticks just seemed easier then it gradually dries and then gets graded my opinion and the smell of the markets was so heavenly for lack of a better word miss those times

Kentucky here :) The bales would be put onto a wagon. I think they just sold the last of the tabacco warehouses in Cynthiana, KY on North 27 :(

boy we would love to see a clip of this explained by Cherokee!

The people is what made it good. It's never going back to how it was.

Before there were gas burners on the floor of the barn, we had to stay up all night burning wood at the right temperature to cure out the baccer.

@@donarthiazi2443 A real pal of mine grew up doing that, keeping the fires going at night in the barns in Georgia. That's where he learned to play a French harp. He could blow a blue note as long as your arm!

@@lewiemcneely9143 He must be getting on in years. I remember the market in Georgia opened earlier than in North and South Carolina so when money was tight, which was often, 😄 we would put the cured-out sand lugs on a train to sell down there.

@@donarthiazi2443 Got to eat and pay the light bill.

@@lewiemcneely9143 I understand that. But if you read my first post there's a clue in it about the light bill. They didn't have electricity in those days. Or at least the folks that lived on farms in the rural areas had no power. They had outhouses and night-jars though lol. Seriously, back in those days being a share-cropper was only 1 rung above slavery. I don't like using slavery as a comparison though because it seems to kinda make light of how bad it was. But it's true that share-croppers were absolutely destitute back then.

We were going for a much higher quality of tobacco. More money per pound.

@@Rick-wn5oh If it pays better it may be worth all the extra efforts

Every time I eat a red delicious apple now it tastes bland. Kind of miss the bitter flavor that the tobacco gum added to it.

Yeap, my friend in Cynthiana, KY bailed it up into bales. I remember stripping it and then a big bunch of leaves (sorry, I don't remember much about it) would be layed into some contraption that had twine running through it. We'd pull down a handle, I think, and it would in ratchet fashion tighten up the bale. At some point we'd tie off the bale and drop down the wall in front (maybe we pulled the wall out?) and then push the bale over. I miss those times :(

okay so I can actually answer this really quick, so basically the big top leaves will have the most nicotine and be of the highest grade. But also, in the case of dokha pipe tobacco the conditions in which its grown, the way its cured, and the different sections of the leaf also contribute to nicotine content. For example, dokha pipe tobacco is grown in the desert, abused by the heat, and only watered enough to keep it alive. And what this process does is it causes the tobacco plant to produce excessive amounts of nicotine. Also, dokha pipe tobacco is cured in a shaded shed and harvested when the leaves are light green instead of yellow. And what this does is it preserves as much of the nicotine as possible which is why dokha pipe tobacco is so potent. On top of this different sections of the leaf have different concentrations of nicotine for example, the very top of the leaf has the least amount of nicotine, the middle of the leaf is a little stronger and the bottom of the leaf has the highest concentration of nicotine. This is why dokha pipe tobacco comes in different strengths known as cold, warm, and hot which refers to both the nicotine content and how harsh the smoke is.

With the price of cigarettes it seems like a no brainer. I’ve seen Amish growing it as far north as Lancaster PA. I’d grow it, but it took me 15 years to kick nicotine. I’ll never touch it again.

WHO CARES , you can not protect someone from themselves .

Or maybe sugar. All that diabetes out there. Or maybe barley. Alcohol can mess you up.

But Trump made America great, what are you whining about?

@@canadiangemstones7636 yeah and biden needed 12hours to ruin it again

Pleasures of culture? Who's history do you speak of? What "culture" did they have getting rich off the backs of enslaved African Americans? What "pleasure" did the slaves get from it? You and those like you are the reason this country is a laughing stock. White washing actual factual history. Even now 90% of those working in the fields are immigrants, yet y'all are only concerned about "Building that wall". This country would be screwed without them yet y'all still treat them like garbage. So STFU with your talk about "culture" because you obviously have none. "By 1767, there were about 40,000 slaves in the North Carolina colony. About 90 percent of these slaves were field workers who performed agricultural jobs By 1767, there were about 40,000 slaves in the North Carolina colony. About 90 percent of these slaves were field workers who performed agricultural jobs" I bet you're proud of that too? So you can take your pleasures of culture and your version of "history" and shove it!