Tobacco Packhouse at W.H. Outlaw Farm

This tobacco packhouse was built when I was young, perhaps 8. I remember going out to it while it was under construction, by whom I don't know. It essentially replaced a structure located just southwest of it. (The old structure was deconstructed back at the dawn of my memory, and at the moment I won't venture whether it was taken down before or after this building was built.)

The first group of images were taken in late 2007, by which time it was abundantly clear that the structure had passed its utility and safety. One notes that termites had infested (actually, all the way up to the roof supports!) and the east wall was buckled (not to mention that the design would never had met code, anyhow). After these photographs were made, I went into the building only once more, mainly to remove the tobacco sticks and keep as mementos. There were two vintages of sticks, earlier ones hand-split from heart pine and later ones that were cut with a sawmill. As noted, only a few sticks remained; the stack had been waist-high (several hundred) and someone absconded with them (they run about $8/each at antique stores). Of those left, I shared some with Jerry Hall and with Cathy Metts.

In brief, tobacco was cured in a barn by first running at low heat (to "yellow" it, 80-120 F, and I think we aimed at about 110 F) and then by drying it, between 140-170 F and I think we aimed at 160 F). The barn was then opened (doors and typically two upper wooden shutters) to "bring the tobacco to order." Of course, the dry leaves were initially brittle, but they absorbed enough moisture overnight to render them pliable. Then, the sticks of tobacco were taken off the tiers, thence to the packhouse and stacked (too much moisture, though, invited spoilage--always a way to lose money in farming). Generally women and children would remove the tobacco from the sticks ("unstring"), thus one notes the parallel and offset horizontal boards--the stick would be placed in the slot between the top and bottom boards for support while the tobacco was removed from it. A child may unstring 75 sticks a day whereas a hard-working adult could sometimes unstring as many as 300 sticks (including, of course, stacking the tobacco neatly, cleaning the sticks of errant twine). The going rate was 1 cent per stick, though some farmers paid as much as 1.5 cents per stick. An adult could expect thus to make $3 per day (compared with $4 for working at the barn or cleaning fence rows, and $5 for a man working in the field). Later, the tobacco was arranged on a "sheet" in a circular stack, stems out, 125-300 lbs per stack, and taken to the warehouse for sale (auctions, where typically the buyers spent 3 seconds assessing and buying a stack, about 2400 per day at each warehouse). A few farmers would attempt to grade the tobacco and compile stacks according to the nominal 300 grades of tobacco, which would bring a better price. In broad terms, the tobacco was graded naturally to some extent since the crop was harvested in about 7 weekly croppings (thus, all sand lugs (the bottom leaves) were cropped, cured, and packed together, as were the tips (top leaves). Note as an off-comment that a living was to be made by so-called pin-hookers, who bought tobacco piles one day, graded and repackaged and resold two days later, at a higher total price.

What had been a hubbub of activity during the summers for many years was reduced in about 2 hours to a pile of rubble, leaving these photos and memories.

Last edit: 2013-06-25
Note: As mentioned in the banner, this area of Southern Matters is private; if you are not a family member, friend, or invited guest, please enjoy the public areas of Southern Matters or exit. Thank you for following our Honor System. This file may contain copyrighted material; the authority to grant permission for its use does not rest with us. Otherwise--for our original material--the following citation format is suggested: "Southern Matters, accessed yyyy/mm/dd."