Tobacco auction warehouse. 



Air-cured Types (except cigar) 



VI. MARKETING 



In these types the stalks are removed from the 

 sticks and arranged in piles or "bulks" in such a 

 way that the tobacco will retain moisture for 

 several days. The leaves are pulled from the stalks 

 and tied into "hands" of 20-40 leaves. Sorting and 

 grading takes place during this process based on 

 stalk position, color, quality, and size so that 

 individual hands are grouped into different grades. 

 The graded tobacco is then bulked down until 

 time for delivery to market. 



Air-cured Cigar types 



The leaves of the stalk cut types are sorted and 

 packed into rectangular bales as they are pulled 

 from the stalk. Home-made box frames are used 

 and the bales are wrapped with a heavy brown 

 paper and secured with twine. The weight of a 

 bale ranges from 40 to 60 pounds (18.14 to 27.22 

 kilograms). In these types there is very little sort- 

 ing by grades. 



The prime shade grown leaves are more care- 

 fully sorted and tied into hands priorto packing in 

 wooden boxes for delivery to a packing house. All 

 cigar types undergo some form of fermentation 

 before they are ready for sale (see storage and 

 aging, page 18). 



Flue-cured Types 



The priming method used in harvesting these 

 types provides a rough grouping by stalk position 

 since each priming is handled separately. As the 

 leaves are removed from the barns, additional 

 sorting may be done and then they are wrapped in 

 burlap sheets and delivered to market. 



Around 97 percent of the tobacco grown in the 

 United States is marketed by the auction method 

 where the tobacco is displayed for sale in small 

 individual lots. The remaining 3 percent, made up 

 principally of cigar-leaf tobacco, is sold either 

 directly on the farms or through farmer-owned 

 cooperatives. A very small quantity is sold in the 

 traditional wooden hogsheads. 



The auction method began in Danville, Virginia, 

 shortly before the Civil War. Following the 

 conflict, the system came to be widely accepted 

 throughout the rapidly-expanding flue-cured belt 

 in North Carolinaand Virginia. Auction marketing 

 was introduced in the Kentucky and Tennessee 

 areas at Clarksville, Tenn., in 1901. 



Auction Method of Selling 



Growers deliver their tobacco to the auction 

 warehouse of their choice, where it is sold to the 

 highest bidder. The bidders are buyers for 

 tobacco products manufacturers both domestic 

 and foreign and independent dealers who buy on 

 orders for domestic and foreign tobacco products 

 manufacturers or for future sales to these 

 manufacturers. The auction system is of vast pro- 

 portions, providing facilities for handling nearly 2 

 billion pounds (0.9 billion kilograms) of tobacco 

 annually, mostly from July through February. 



The length and period of the marketing season 

 varies for the different types of tobacco, and, to 

 some extent, from year to year. The selling begins 

 when the Georgia and Florida flue-cured markets 

 open in July and ends when sales in Maryland are 

 completed in June of the following year. The 



13 



