From: ????????????????????????
Subject: Volume of articles

Our Most Aromatic Highness writes:

> I never expected a huge volume of messages, for a variety of reasons. 
> 
> First off, we're a small group (about 20-30 members, not counting the
> digest echo into arpanet). It's not likely to get huge; I forget the
> percentage of people who smoke pipes, but it's something like 5%, and
> far fewer of us make a hobby out of pipes. We're never going to have
> the volume of soc.singles (not that we should!)

A good point;  and I would suggest that even some of "us" aren't
quite true hobbyists. Myself, for example.

As an analogy, consider wine.  Many people drink it; a fraction of
those really bother to learn about what they're drinking, enough to
know a few good vintages, possibly build up a small wine cellar, know
what wines to serve when, etc.  To translate this into pipe terms, I'd
say, would include knowledge of technical matters (for example, how
pipes are made; hand- vs. machine-carved,  pits and fills, finishes, etc.),
tobacco lore (how it's grown, cured, flavored, blended), history, etc. 
On that basis, I personally don't qualify as a "hobbyist", though
I'm slowly becoming one, thanks largely to this group.

BTW, I do enjoy receiving the digests on Mondays.  Anything is better than
getting down to work that morning... 8-)




Subject:   Tobacco Roots


There's one area of smoking I *do* know something about, and that's
tobacco growing.  Now, I don't know a *lot*, but I'll bet others in
this group can fill in the gaps.

My grandparents used to raise a bit of tobacco on their southwestern Ohio
farm, so this is mostly from youthful experience (I helped them from
the time I was about 9 years old until I went off to college).  They grew
Seed Leaf, a variety of tobacco used mostly for cigars, so take that as
a caveat; there are differences in how the various tobaccos are grown,
and I have experience only with this sort.

Tobacco growing is highly regulated, to maintain price control.  This means
that each grower has a "base", a certain acreage he is allowed to grow.
Each farmer grows as much as his base will allow, because it is a very
high-value crop.   It is also extremely complicated and labor-intensive.

Because each square foot of the base acreage is so valuable, great pains are
taken to ensure complete utilization.   The tobacco growing season begins
in early spring, when seedbeds are turned up.   A seedbed is a small plot
of land where the seeds will be planted and nurtured, until the "sprouts"
are large enough to transplant into the fields.  Young tobacco is slow-
growing and fragile; left on its own in a harsh world, it will suffer huge
"infant mortality" to insects, and to weeds which grow more quickly and
steal its sunlight and nutrients.

So the tobacco beds are spaded to up-end and us loosen the soil.  Next,
large metal pans (about 6 feet long and three to four wide (the width of
the beds) are inverted over the turned soil; into these pans is piped live
steam.  The purpose is to sterilize the soil; it is about to be heavily
fertilzed and pampered, which is weed heaven.

Steaming itself is rather amazing.  The steamer my grandpa hired each year
had an old Ford truck with the bed removed, and a small locomotive steam
engine fitted.  It looked like something out of the 1800's.  In fact, the
whistle was still fitted, and at the end of the job, he'd let go with a
long blast  (and sometimes he'd even let us kids pull the rope ! 8-)

Once the beds are steamed, 6" high wooden frames are erected around them.
The beds are fertilzed, then seeded; then a tent of thin canvas is 
stretched over them, to keep out insects and airborne seed (The
canvas is thin enough to allow sunlight in).  The beds are then watered 
daily and fertilized several times a week, until the plants have grown 
to a height of about six inches.  This period is sort of tricky;  too 
much fertilzer can "burn" the plants (the fertilizer is ammonia-based,
so too much of it can increase the alkalinity of the soil too far), and
too much water can lead to rot and mildew.

A word on seed.   My grandfather always saved seed from the previous year's
crop, and I gathered that this was the norm.   A gentleman at a local
smoke shop told me that tobacco quickly adapts to its locality.  His
example was the vaunted Cuban Seed Leaf, so coveted by cigar smokers.  He
claimed that, while seed could be taken from Cuba to other
locations, such as Honduras, and would grow Cuban-quality plants the first
year, the seed produced by those plants would be adapted to the
new environment, and produce a very different crop the next year.  I
don't understand this, genetically, but I suppose the differences
between the two tobaccos are small enough to make it believable.

In any case, tobacco seed is apparently quite valuable;  so much so,
in fact, the my grandfather carefully protected his, to such an extent
that I've never seen any !

My, how I do go on !   I can see this is going to run into quite a bit more
than I'd expected, so I think I'll break it into several installments.
We'll let our seedlings grow for a week, and next time, we'll discuss
tobacco setting.


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Bill Thacker			att!cbema!wbt	     ??????????????????

[ "Our Most Aromatic Highness", indeed! We bathe at least weekly, whether We
   need it or not! Looking forward to Part 2 of your article, Bill! -S. ]


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