Our German ancestors in Virginia were no different from the other people there. They grew tobacco to earn money. Stated even more strongly, tobacco was money. There were lots of problems in raising tobacco, and let's take a look at some of them.
The work had no beginning and no end. Before one crop was completed, work had to commence on the next crop. (Thus the common comment about tobacco farming, "It's a 13 month a year job.") Tobacco is raised from seed (I don't know if one kept plants to produce seed or if one bought the seed.) The seed is very small, almost invisible. A thimble full would probably be enough for a small planter for one year. Before February, one carefully prepared a seed bed by pulverizing the ground. This was done by repeatedly hoeing up the ground and raking it off.
Protecting the seed from the elements was a problem. Heavy rains could wash the soil and seed away. Frost could kill the plants. So one had to be ready during March and April to spread straw and brush over the ground to protect the young tobacco plants. Besides the danger of frost, there were tobacco flies that were always ready to eat the plants. In some years, the fly was so bad that no tobacco was raised.
While the seedlings were developing, the fields into which they would be transplanted had to be prepared. The usual procedure was to plow the ground, and then to hoe the ground up into hills about three feet apart. (This meant one plant took nine square feet, or that an acre of ground could have about 5,000 plants. Thus, one man could take care of one to two acres of tobacco.) As the time came near to set out the seedlings, the workers would punch a hole in the crown of each hill they had made.
Toward the end of May, especially when a rain had put some moisture into the ground, the seedlings were set out. One person could be expected to set out about a thousand seedlings in a day. If the time and conditions were right for transplanting the plants, then all hands would be assigned to this task. In our German families, this meant all individuals who could move responsibly, without regard to their sex or age.
If the plants grew, so did the weeds. Sometimes the weeds were so many and strong that other farm chores such as mowing the hay had to be postponed so the hands could weed the tobacco (and corn). Occasionally there was a conflict between the tending the tobacco (money) and tending the corn (food).
Rains, and lack of rain, were a problem. The farmer could do nothing to control these. Should he hope for rain which would help his tobacco and corn, but would hurt his wheat, oats, and flax? Of course, there wasn't much he could do about it except to remain flexible and to work with whatever nature gave him. Whether the uncontrolled rain was the worst enemy is debatable, for another enemy could be more destructive, and that was a siege of worms or caterpillars. There was a simple answer for the worms.
(04 Jun 01)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.