What was Penny Baxter Smoking?

[makhorkasmoker]

Penny Baxter is a major character in the classic novel, The Yearling-- a book I love. The setting is the 1870s, in the North Florida scrub--not too far from where I live. I sometimes go hiking in The Yearling territory. ... Anyway, Penny smokes a pipe, a cob, it seems, and he grows his own tobacco. There is some description of how he starts his tobacco plants from seed, how he sets them out. But if memory serves we never see how he cures it, or any mention of what variety he's growing.

We do know he appreciated Turkish, because another character, a sailor, brings him some from overseas and he smokes pipe after pipe of it.

We know too that Penny's homegrown is pretty good. The owner of the general store wants some of it because there's nothing like it.

So I have been wondering: what was Penny smoking?

This connects to a broader question I've had for some time about homegrown tobacco in general in the Deep South back in those days. I see a lot of old tobacco barns in south Georgia. Many of them had flues, and I know flue-cured tobacco was a cash crop around these parts for a big chunk of the twentieth century. But I also hear stories about "One mule" farmers who grew a little tobacco for smoking and chewing back in the depression days and earlier. These are the ones I'm really wondering about. Would this tobacco have been flue cured too? Or would it have been air cured or dark fired even?

Do any of you know? Are there any books or other literature out there on this subject?

Thanks!

 

[chilllucky]

The best book on the history of tobacco as a commodity I've read so far is "Making Tobacco Bright" by Barbara Hahn.

There are a lot of good papers available as pdf's about the changes in tobacco farming (barns, tractors, seed raising, regional practices) out of the University of North Carolina. Any search that leads there is going to be worth reading, in my experience.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

There are hundreds of tobacco varieties, especially when it comes to homegrown heirlooms. Pipesmokers tend to just boil it down to burleys and Virginias, but really there are hundreds of burleys and hundreds of Virginias (or brightleaf varieties). By 1870, flue curing had been around 20 years, and had made their ways into small farms, but unless the farmer was producing commercially, I don't imagine a farmer growing for their own uses would take the time to build a flue. It would have just been so much easier to hang the leaf in the attic. But, like I said, it still could have been any of hundreds of varieties or mix thereof.

 

[bullet08]

You sure that was tobacco she was smoking?

 

[anotherbob]

Penny Baxter is a major character in the classic novel, The Yearling-- a book I love. The setting is the 1870s, in the North Florida scrub--not too far from where I live. I sometimes go hiking in The Yearling territory. ... Anyway, Penny smokes a pipe, a cob, it seems, and he grows his own tobacco. There is some description of how he starts his tobacco plants from seed, how he sets them out. But if memory serves we never see how he cures it, or any mention of what variety he's growing.

We do know he appreciated Turkish, because another character, a sailor, brings him some from overseas and he smokes pipe after pipe of it.

We know too that Penny's homegrown is pretty good. The owner of the general store wants some of it because there's nothing like it.

So I have been wondering: what was Penny smoking?

This connects to a broader question I've had for some time about homegrown tobacco in general in the Deep South back in those days. I see a lot of old tobacco barns in south Georgia. Many of them had flues, and I know flue-cured tobacco was a cash crop around these parts for a big chunk of the twentieth century. But I also hear stories about "One mule" farmers who grew a little tobacco for smoking and chewing back in the depression days and earlier. These are the ones I'm really wondering about. Would this tobacco have been flue cured too? Or would it have been air cured or dark fired even?

Do any of you know? Are there any books or other literature out there on this subject?

Thanks!

that's the fun thing about fiction. It can be whatever you think of when you imagine the best stuff. Even a good chance that's not lazy but intentional.
Like in a story I might describe a mysterious lady in great detail or just say she's the most beautiful lady you ever saw. If I say the second I don't care if she's short, tall, skinny, fat, or even looks like chewbacca. All I care at that point is that you're imagining your version of it.
Heck in the original story it might be a heirloom tobacco that isn't commonly know or even named a unique type that's it's own thing.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

There are hundreds of tobacco varieties, especially when it comes to homegrown heirlooms. Pipesmokers tend to just boil it down to burleys and Virginias, but really there are hundreds of burleys and hundreds of Virginias (or brightleaf varieties). By 1870, flue curing had been around 20 years, and had made their ways into small farms, but unless the farmer was producing commercially, I don't imagine a farmer growing for their own uses would take the time to build a flue. It would have just been so much easier to hang the leaf in the attic. But, like I said, it still could have been any of hundreds of varieties or mix thereof.

I'm wondering how these home grown, air cured tobaccos were processed--if at all. When I read posts over on the Fair Trade Tobacco forums, the majority seems to feel that burleys that haven't been aged a long time are pretty rough, to the point of being unsmokable, unless they've been toasted or kilned or treated in various other ways. It could be that Penny (and so many small farmers in real life) were just tough as nails (as they seem to have been) and they smoked something many of us today would find intolerable, because it was all they had. But I have to wonder: Were there heirloom varieties that tasted pretty good even with minimal processing? Or were they stacking the air cured tobacco they had and sweating it a little, sort of like dark burley, and making it more palatable? Who knows they may have cased the stuff with molasses or something. I will keep searching ...

Thank you for the the information. I had not idea there were THAT many varieties.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

The best book on the history of tobacco as a commodity I've read so far is "Making Tobacco Bright" by Barbara Hahn.

There are a lot of good papers available as pdf's about the changes in tobacco farming (barns, tractors, seed raising, regional practices) out of the University of North Carolina. Any search that leads there is going to be worth reading, in my experience.

Thank you. I will keep checking out those pdf's. I'm looking at the Hahn book, too.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Isn’t this a fictional character?
Or, are you contemplating growing you some tobacco?

 

[WhiteDevilPress]

Were there heirloom varieties that tasted pretty good even with minimal processing? Or were they stacking the air cured tobacco they had and sweating it a little, sort of like dark burley, and making it more palatable?

I'm also a fan of Rawlings' work, and as I also live near there, I'd wager there's a good chance that her small compound might have included a smokehouse, which wasn't at all uncommon during the period of time she lived in Florida. How much trouble would it have been to throw a few stacks in with the hams, turkeys and sausages? Don't know, I'm just speculating.

 

[Chasing Embers]

We do know he appreciated Turkish, because another character, a sailor, brings him some from overseas and he smokes pipe after pipe of it.

Turkish is a broad term that covers several varieties.

 

[jpmcwjr]

The Yearling was one of the first "real" books I read as a kid. Loved it.

 

[Hillcrest]

Penny Baxter is a major character in the classic novel, The Yearling-- a book I love. The setting is the 1870s, in the North Florida scrub--not too far from where I live. I sometimes go hiking in The Yearling territory. ... Anyway, Penny smokes a pipe, a cob, it seems, and he grows his own tobacco. There is some description of how he starts his tobacco plants from seed, how he sets them out. But if memory serves we never see how he cures it, or any mention of what variety he's growing.

We do know he appreciated Turkish, because another character, a sailor, brings him some from overseas and he smokes pipe after pipe of it.

We know too that Penny's homegrown is pretty good. The owner of the general store wants some of it because there's nothing like it.

So I have been wondering: what was Penny smoking?

This connects to a broader question I've had for some time about homegrown tobacco in general in the Deep South back in those days. I see a lot of old tobacco barns in south Georgia. Many of them had flues, and I know flue-cured tobacco was a cash crop around these parts for a big chunk of the twentieth century. But I also hear stories about "One mule" farmers who grew a little tobacco for smoking and chewing back in the depression days and earlier. These are the ones I'm really wondering about. Would this tobacco have been flue cured too? Or would it have been air cured or dark fired even?

Do any of you know? Are there any books or other literature out there on this subject?

Thanks!

Four types of tobacco were grown in Florida around 1880: the Florida Leaf, The Connecticut Seed leaf, The Havana and the Virginia. Later gov't statistics refer to Florida tobacco as Flue-cured type 14.
See the two links below for more info. In the first link you have to scroll down to chapter 4 which discusses Florida.

1.)
http://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1880/vol-03-agriculture/1880v3-20.pdf

culture a~d curing of tobacco in arkansas. - Census.gov​

i of tho enumerators in 1880 the state, in 1870, produced H70,220 ... The quantity of tobacco grown in Florida would not of itself justify an extended ...




2.) https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/4709259808_sb869.pdf?v=0

U.S. Tobacco Statistics, 1935-92 - USDA ERS​

Keywords: Tobacco, prodUction, supply, disappearance, price, utilization. world trade. Acknowledgments. TIle authors wish to thank the following reviewers ...

 

[Hillcrest]

The article above (first link) says the Virginia was only grown for home consumption so I am going to guess flue-cured Virginia as the tobacco Penny Baxter smoked. Let me know if I win !

 

[Hillcrest]

@makhorkasmoker You have inspired me to have some Newminster 400 in a Missouri Meerschaum Mark Twain cob sometime today when I have time to enjoy it !