Thank you for making this. I am the last generation of Trott family from southern Anne Arundel to have lived this until the buyout. I remember going to school each September and the teacher would ask kids what they did over their summer. They would say things like “went to the beach” or “went to camp” or even the occasional “went to Disney World”. I despised those question and answer sessions because my summers were spent very differently. Monday through Saturday started with “two down and one back”. The only joy I could find would be when I drove the tractor as we loaded it up. If I could time it right, I could pop the clutch enough to throw whoever was on the trailer off, and I got pretty good at faking an apology. Karma would catch me a little later when we put it up in the barn, as I was always the trailer man and passing it up to everyone above me. The drips of sweat didn’t seem to bother me, but every now and then I wouldn’t duck low enough and the poles would knock me off my feet as I banged my head on them. The middle of the day break for lunch felt like Thanksgiving every day. My grandmother cooked some of the most delicious meals I have ever had (probably because I was so worn out by lunch). As good as it tasted, it never seemed to sit right in my stomach as I would lay on the trailer afterwards in the heat of the sun. It would feel like I was in a literal food coma, with no possible way I could get the energy back up to keep cutting. I can still feel the splintered wood on my back, as I lay on the trailer listening to the hum and buzz of locusts/cicadas. The sun felt inescapable. I hated it as a kid. My Dad said he did too. I told him I never wanted to grow up and do it, and he told me that he used to say that too. I guess I’m the first one to be able to stick to my word. It is a strange feeling to miss being so miserable, but I would trade 100 days of today’s comfort for just one day of the misery back then. As the people pass on from this earth, so do the stories and memories of how things used to be. Thank you for giving me more than just a “back in my day” story to share with my kids. God Bless.

great story of old tobacco days thanka for sharing

When I was a young teenager I used to help my grandfather on his farm and an uncle on another farm get their tobacco in. This was in South Central Virginia. They did a completely different method than what you have described. We had these things called slides or sleds, basically a base on runners with ends made of wood with sides made of feed sacks sewn onto poles, these sides could be folded up or down. The slides were pulled by a mule in the early years but later on pulled by a tractor down the rows of tobacco plants. If you were a picker you would go into the field and pick the tobacco starting with the lower leaves, you'd be shown the color and size of leaves to pick. You picked the bottom leaves first because those were 'ripe' and large and ready to pick. If you wanted all of your tobacco to be a really high grade you'd pick only the leaves that were ready and lay them them into the tobacco slide, all in the same direction. I think I remember holding the leaves under my left arm until the slide would be close or I had too many leaves to manage. The slide was pulled along the row as we worked. Once full it was pulled to an area where people, usually women and girls, were doing what was called passing and stringing. There would be a tobacco stick placed on a stand at the end of which was a ball of white string. To string the tobacco a passer would quickly take 3 leaves off of the pile on the sled and pass them to the stringer, one bunch of 3 leaves on one side of the stick and one bunch of 3 on the other. The Stringer looped the string over the stems of the tobacco leaves, securing them on either side of the stick. The passer and the stringer developed a nice rhythm and could go pretty fast. I prided myself on being a good passer and pretty fast Stringer too. I remember feeling really proud of myself when my grandmother said I could be a Stringer instead of just a picker or a passer. Lol After the tobacco stick was full of strung leaves, there was a cutter on the string holder, you'd cut the thread and you or someone assigned to, would carry your strung stick of leaves to be laid down on a flatbed wagon. The wagon was then pulled by a mule or tractor to a tobacco barn. Men would climb up into the barn rafters, rafters that were made perfectly spaced to support the sticks strung with tobacco leaves. We'd pass the sticks up to the men and they'd be passed up higher into the tops of the tobacco barns. I really hated passing those sticks up to the men, they were heavy and there was an art to holding them just right so the tobacco wouldn't slide. Also dirt from the leaves would fall and get into your eyes. It was pretty awful. I got in big trouble once for refusing to do it, I was forced to do it anyway, my grandmother got a broom after me and swatted and poked me out of the house and down to the barn. Lol There was an art to how many leaves to a stick, how close the sticks were together up in the barn rafters, how much moisture was in the barn, how hot the burners were in the barn, etc.. I remember the men checking on the barns often. At some point I remember the tobacco was ready to be twisted into these shapes, like knots but that must've been when I was very young, I don't remember that being done when I was a teen. I never was on the farm past late Summer or early Fall. I always had to go home at that point to go to school, so I'm not sure how the tobacco was prepped to go to market. I know it was not in placed hogsheads like in the olden days though. One of the last times I helped with the harvest, instead of stringing the tobacco by hand my grandmother had purchased a stringing machine, a terrible thing possibly made in hell, I hated it. I had to lay down a bed of bunches of 3 leaves of tobacco, top those with a stick and the next person added a top layer of leaves. All of this was happening on a moving conveyor belt and at the end the leaves were sewn on the stick. I remember hating it because every time we got a good rhythm going my grandmother would speed the machine up. It was much less enjoyable than the old method, plus the machine was noisy. Stringing was no longer plesant at all. Working in tobacco was hot, sweaty dirty work. Sweat bees stung us, the sun burned our skin, our hands would be coated in tobacco tar, best way to get rid of that was to get a handful of sandy dirt to scrub the tar off. I used to help top the tobacco and pull off suckers too. We were also encouraged to pull off any tobacco worms that had survived whatever pesticides had been used on the crop, I hated them, big fat green worms, ugh. I used to like going out to work in the field before it was too hot back when a mule pulled the tobacco slide and we strung by hand. My grandmother always fixed a really nice lunch for us on days we were harvesting. My sister and I were free labor during the summers. About once a week we got to ride along to the country store and get a coke and a candy bar or a coke and a pack of peanuts to pour into the coke, our reward for helping. We also helped in the dairy barn, helped with the chickens, the orchard, the truck and kitchen gardens. It was a lot of hard work but we were well fed and slept like babies each night.

Great video a lot of hard work enjoy thanks for sharing it be safe .

In Central Kentucky we cut the tobacco and place it on the stick at the same time by jobbing the stick down in the ground behind us. Western KY does it like you all, but they mostly raise alot of dark tobacco. East TN apparently does it like you all too. Look up 'Garrard County Tobacco Cutting Competition', those boys can cut and spear.

Been there done that, laid miles of sticks as my first job, and it was a huge deal to be entrusted with one of the tobacco knives. I want to grow a few row for my boys next year.

I grow pumpkins in corn very fascinating. How tobacco grows good video. And I love Tractor church God bless.

Just wanted to say how much respect I have for you sir.... I thought working in modern day flue cured was bad. That dark tobacco as we call it is on a different level

That is very interesting I’ve never seen nobody do tobacco good video

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

Really enjoying the videos. Keep em coming!

Yep... You sure make me miss Aquasco and Benedict but not that tobacco or those damn tobacco barns ! Merry Christmas to you Southern Maryland Farmer.

Yep, toppin and suckerin. That’s what happened in my day back in North Florida. The came croppin. Never did a lot of that part myself. Had two big sale barns in town and I remember racking and then later pulling racks to build the bundles to send to the sale barn. Never did it the old way in the big barns, but we had those huge old tobacco barns all over the. Always had those wood tobacco sticks laying around that we’d use for about everything, especially tomato stakes 😁😁. I see most of those old barns falling down these days. Grew working on cars in one of those old barns. When I came up we used the metal bulk barns for drying with the racks

Thank you for the tobacco lessons 🙏 I never knew anything about it.

Very Interesting and a very well-done presentation. Cheers!

I grew up on a Holstein farm in northern Montgomery county Maryland. I found some of those corn spears yesterday going through some old tools of my grandparents. Pretty neat! found four of em! ✌🇺🇸

We’re going hay here in middle Georgia rounds and squares The squares will keep you in good shape but put a hurting on ya for a while Always interesting to see and hear how it is done back in the day Thanks

Thank you. Great film. Reminds me of filling barns with hay.

Have seen this done in Kentucky near Grayson on the Bledsoe Plantation.

Really cool video.

Love your video!

You used to see tobacco everywhere in So. MD and Northern VA doesn't seem like you see it anymore

My parental grandfather used to raise tobacco and corn in eastern Kentucky

Greetings from Australia great video

Here in mountains of North Carolina we call them spears tobacker spuds great videos on mountain farming

Interesting video, growing up on a corn, bean, and wheat farm along with hogs and cattle. I’ve seen how tobacco was harvested!

I miss those days!

Down here in St Mary's got so we only 4 on a stick if ya had good bacca did my share still kina miss some of it never took the buyout never know could plant some again

Love your videos I used to Prime tobacco myself we had machines to ride on Ontario Canada used to be a lot of tobacco farms not so much no more good videos I'm a John Deere man 2 I like the tractor pulls

We raised, topped, suckered, cut, speared, hauled, hung and stripped tobacco just like that in Northern KY. Those were long, hard, hot days on the farm. Tobacco was the primary crop on our family farm.

I think they should start growing it again in Maryland.

Now living in Pa and the Amish still grow about 5,000 acres of old fashion tobacco. Right now the barns are full.

I’m from wv we called it spudding and we called them Spuds I’ve never heard it called spears we still got over 8000 hand split tobacco sticks in tje barn we raised around ten acres for almost a century nice video

I didnt know tobacco plants got so big

Great explanation of tobacco growing . Good and clear . Your dad sounds like a character. 👍🇬🇧

I wonder about the difference in having harvested tobacco versus processed (I did enjoy Smokeing )

I collect tobacco knives. I have a tobacco farming tool, bet you've never seen before.

Hello sir, would love to try growing some tobacco on my small farm someday. Are deer interested in eating tobacco plants?😅 I have to keep my vegetable fields fenced in or the deer will mow everything down. Thank you.

How much do ya still grow pre year?

Interesting,,,how well does it smoke without all the crap added?