c 



had tlie woody stem and midrib removed (stemmed) 

 before packing. Nearly all of this fire-cured leaf, pro- 

 duced in northwestern Kentucky, was exported to Eu- 

 rope. But by 1949, when its harvests had been reduced 

 to under 1()0,()()0 poinids— it had been even lower in tiie 

 earlier '40's — cultivation of this type was abandoned. 

 Green River tobacco and fire-cured types from other 

 Kentucky areas were as acceptable to foreign buyers and 

 domestic manufacturers of snuff. 



ounsel, controls, cooperation 



Several efforts had been made in the early 1930's to 

 revive tobacco-farmer cooperatives. A few got off to a 

 flourishing start but none of these early successes was 

 maintained. 



Government interest in the agrarian and economic 

 problems of farmers became intensified during tlie de- 

 pression years and developed into programs of allot- 

 ments and price supports. Tobacco as a basic com- 

 modity, soil conservation, parity, the AAA and the 

 Commodity Credit Corporation, marketing quotas and 

 referendums were terms and conditions that became 

 part of the lives of farmers and sometimes a part of 

 their vocabuhu)'. 



Somehow, through the years of adjusting themselves 

 to government counsel and controls, busy tobacco farm- 

 ers found time to get to meetings wliere their economic 

 status was under discussion. As a result of such meetings 

 the practical operations of the twenty-year-old Burley 

 Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association were re- 

 newed in 1941. Other tobacco-farmers' organizations 

 followed and now work closely witli go^ermnent agen- 

 cies that are concerned witli agricultiual prices under 

 the federal stabilization program. 



59 



