• Virginia "sun-cured" (dark air-cured). This is grown 

 only in Virginia where nearly 2.5 million pounds was 

 harvested in 1959. Its use is confined almost entirely 

 to a form of plug chewing tobacco. Although the old 

 term "sun-cured" is retained, in practice this class of 

 tobacco is air-cured. 



eople make tobacco 



The most labor-demanding of all field crops is tobacco. 

 From seedbeds to harvests, from curing barns to grading 

 leaf for auction sales, good tobacco depends very largely 

 on the human factor: the hands, the eyes and the skill 

 of men who understand the temperamental plant. 



It takes the labor, and a hard, year-around labor, of 

 64,300 farm families apart from seasonal workers to 

 produce Virginia's annual tobacco crops. Each year 

 200,000 to 250,000 men and women are at work during 

 periods when extra help is required to bring tobacco in 

 from the fields. There is a brief pause in the routines of 

 work only when the cured leaves are being sold oflF 

 auction floors. 



.lie farmer goes to market 



Sales by auction take place in 18 Virginia communi- 

 ties. The marketing seasons usually begin the last week 

 in September and end late in February. There were, in 

 the latest seasons, 74 warehouses that disposed of leaf 

 from Virginia's tobacco farms. From the auction floors 



