Bringing a crop of tobacco to wholesome maturity 

 requires exceptional care on the part of growers. No field 

 crops are more diflRcult to produce and none exact more 

 manual labor. Mechanical aids such as power-drawn 

 transplanters have eliminated some occupational back- 

 aches. Other labor-reducing devices are currently under 

 advanced study or experiment, and a leaf -picking ma- 

 chine is being tested. Generally, however, from the time 

 seedbeds are prepared and sown, through cultivation and 

 harvesting to curing and packing for warehouses, to- 

 bacco farming is plain hard work that continues through 

 most of each year. 



JLlie leaf that binds 



Broadleaf and Havana Seed are known as "sun- 

 grown," "open-field" or "outdoor" tobaccos as distinct 

 from "shade-grown." The fields producing these binder 

 types usually cover only four or five acres. Tobacco 

 farmers are very likely to be growing other crops as 

 well, and some go in for dairy products and poultry. 

 Producing tobacco is more often than not a family enter- 

 prise, with all liands being most useful at transplanting 

 and harvesting times. They will be especially active, too, 

 during the intermittent periods of hostilities against 

 plagues of insects. 



A tablespoonful of tiny seeds will produce around a 

 ton of binder tobacco. Mature plants of this type are 

 cut down whole, speared onto sticks in lots of five or six 

 and left lying briefly on the ground to wilt. Then they 

 are removed to barns and hung on tier poles to be cured 

 by air and, when weather conditions require it, by sup- 

 plementary heat from indoor fires. Curing will take five 

 to eight weeks. 



