s 



supplying stripped leaf of heavy, coarse variety to the 

 Enghsh market. Out of tlie Cumberhind River area came 

 a considerable number of types among which Poor Man's 

 Friend, One Sucker, Shoestring, White Burley, Morrow, 

 Blue and Yellow Pryor were best known. 



elling systems 



Despite Louisville's prominence as the greatest hogs- 

 head auction center — 175,000 hogsheads were annually 

 on the Hoors of its twenty warehouses before 1900 — not 

 all larmers went to the trouble of pressing cured leaf 

 into hogsheads. 



For two decades and longer, from 1880 on, many in- 

 dependent growers of tobacco in Kentucky maintained 

 their own pattern of selling leaf. They had been encour- 

 aged by buyers representing domestic and European 

 firms to "sell direct." At barn doors, in market town 

 streets, or at designated meeting places on country roads, 

 buyers bought leaf without benefit of auctions. 



When disposing of loose leaf from their wagons 

 farmers called it "the Virginia method," which it cer- 

 tainly was not. When planters of western Kentucky 

 mo\ed their wagons to the protection of a roofed-over 

 drivewa)- (the "chute"), buyers standing on a platform 

 from which they could inspect the leaf were engaged in 

 "chute bu\ ing." For a number of years, in the "nortliern 

 districts" near Owensboro, Green Hiver tobacco was 

 sold at auction, though only sample leaves of the sea- 

 son s crop were shown to l)idders. 



B 



ountiful Burley 



The se\ eral distinct types produced in Kentucky were 

 not competitive insofar as markets were concerned. Be- 



49 



