North Carolina Tobacco Barns
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Good read. When I drive down to Ft. Bragg, there used to be a tobacco storage building. Probably drove past it hundreds of times. Now it's something other than tobacco storage. Number of tobacco fields are gone too. Tobacco built this state, and there are still some left. But not like back 30, 40 years ago.
I seldom see tobacco barns or tobacco fields any more. Where I live, I saw plenty of both surrounding Greensboro when I came here in 1979, some in town, most on the outskirts. Now, most of them are gone.
What a wonderful article, enjoyed it. I would very much like to visit the country and see these areas and relics before they are gone for good.
I love these stories,important and wonderful article...?....Now it's fashionable bury the traditions....in the century XXI.......Thaks you,friend.............
They are all over the place where I live; the guy next to my farm has several on his land.
When a farmer around here sells his property to someone that isn't going to farm on it (whether crop or livestock) or the buyer just doesn't want it for whatever reason (they can be safety hazards), if he has one (or many) of these on his property he'll many times hold an auction for someone that wants a piece of nostalgia on their land...the buyer will come and break it down, move it, reassemble it, and re-chink it. It's becoming a big fad around here to save these things.
Nowadays, the farming operations around here mostly use either large long barns or bulk barns (smaller, easier to maintain the necessary atmosphere for curing). Bulk barns are ugly things, but efficient.
When a farmer around here sells his property to someone that isn't going to farm on it (whether crop or livestock) or the buyer just doesn't want it for whatever reason (they can be safety hazards), if he has one (or many) of these on his property he'll many times hold an auction for someone that wants a piece of nostalgia on their land...the buyer will come and break it down, move it, reassemble it, and re-chink it. It's becoming a big fad around here to save these things.
Nowadays, the farming operations around here mostly use either large long barns or bulk barns (smaller, easier to maintain the necessary atmosphere for curing). Bulk barns are ugly things, but efficient.
Great article?. I love reading about the history of tobacco production and blends etc.
Those old barns look beautiful with all the leaves hanging in them.
While checking out at Walmart an older woman was at the door wanting to see the receipt as you pushed your basket out, for some reason we started talking about the impending rice crop here in Acadiana, seems she was from the Carolinas and worked as a little girl in the tobbaco fields, her job after they graded the leaves was to tally how many different bunches of leaves they were hanging in the big barn, she told me what they would look for in a leaf, leaves for a cigar , leaves for pipe smoking, she loved the big barns with the tobbaco hanging in the rafters. Then the family would migrate to my country to work in whatever picking cotton, rice field work , whatever. It truly was a conversion I should of recorded. That time in Americanis gone.
Thanks for sharing this article. It's beautifully written, evocative, and informational.
Thank God... At first I thought the thread was called "North Carolina Tobacco Ban." My heart started racing.
Boy, she's right in my territory. My late wife's maternal grandparents were tobacco farmers along with her grandma's school teaching. Of course they had two tobacco barns. As a child, my late wife helped with "sticking" tobacco to hang in the barns, as described in the article. I commuted from Raleigh to nearby Research Triangle Park for about 35 years, and the farms slowly faded, giving up to small businesses, truck depots, plant nurseries, and such. The tobacco barns slowly melted into the past, reclaimed for seasoned timber and housing lots. The horses, mules, and donkeys I got to know over the years gradually disappeared. Now driving out to "The Park," the landscape has changed so much, I have to feel around where I am going and watch for my turns. I regret I never made it to a tobacco auction, part commodities exchange, part harvest festival, before those became defunct. An excellent article, completely authentic.
“But no North Carolinian should be unaware of tobacco’s importance to our state’s history, culture, and economics; tobacco was the golden leaf that built cities and universities and sustained thousands upon thousands of Tar Heel families.”
Susan Stafford Kelly
Loved the article, thank you!
Susan Stafford Kelly
Loved the article, thank you!
This bit of Gothic lore from my late wife's grandparents' tobacco field. Out there a ways from the house was a small graveyard with some of the graves built over with stone and brick but pretty shallow. This was often the site of candle-lit jack'o'lanterns at Halloween. As the masonry deteriorated, they also attracted area dogs, and a skull appeared from time to time in the farmyard that would have to be tucked back into the grave and covered up with stones, though it happened more than once. Luckily, these remains belonged to an earlier family that owned the farm, so these weren't relatives, but they still knew the name of the family and referred to the skull as Mr. (Jones or whatever his name was). I also liked the story of my late wife's aunt who asked for a high school class ring, and her father killed a calf to make that possible -- close to the earth.
That's why there are so many Bright Leaf festivals in this state every year. My wife and I go to one in Yanceyville right down the road from us called the Brightleaf Hoedown every year, although they cancelled 2020 for obvious reasons.
I grew up playing in one. Climbing in the rafters and shaking the dust off scrap burley leaves from the floor to chew or smoke. (it wasn't pleasant)