From: ????????????????????????
Subject: Pipes Digest #24 - September 3, 1989
Pipes Digest #24 - September 3, 1989
In the pipeline:
- Bill Thacker continues his blockbuster epic, and gives advice on
smokeshops that are HI in the middle and round on both ends;
- Martin A. Lodahl poses a collector's conundrum on an antique pipe;
- Elias Mazur discusses Brazilian cigars, freehands, and the Free Hand of Fate;
- And yr. obd't. servant with a few notes on the Big Apple and the Amish.
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>From: Bill Thacker <cbema!wbt>
Subject: Tobacco Roots II -
(hum the Main Title from Star Wars as you read this)
When last we left our
intrepid young plants, they
were safe and snug in their beds,
awaiting that brave new dawn that would
see them standing in the broad expanse of the
Back Forty. But Darth Nature still holds a few cards,
and you shouldn't count your tobacco until it's smoking...
[insert dazzling special effects here]
Okay, the time has come. Our tobacco plants are shoosting up out of the
ground, eager to live free. Over the next week or two, we'll be
transplanting them into the field.
In preparation, the soil in the field is first tilled; plowed, then disked
repeatedly and levelled, to provide a soft, flat bed for the tender young
plants. This is done the morning of the planting, for maximum effect.
The tobacco beds are heavily watered, section by section, to loosen the
soil so that the sprouts can be plucked out, roots and all, without damage.
Enough plants are "pulled" for the day's transplanting; over the planting
season, each section will be pulled two or three times; after the first
picking, the remaining plants grow more rapidly. Plants are perfect for
tranplanting when about 6" or more high.
The pulled plants are kept in wooden boxes, metal washpans, etc, and packed
rather tightly to retain moisture during the day. They are kept in the
shade, to keep them cool; if they wilt, they become harde to handle.
While the tobacco is pulled, (which, someone, seems to be mostly women's
work, and a fine place to pick up gossip 8-) the menfolk prepare the
equipment. The water wagon (a wagon mounting a large water tank) is
filled, a trailer is loaded with fertilier, insecticide, and herbicide,
and the transplanter is greased and checked. By the time this is done, it's
11:00 and time for dinner. In the afternoon, this curious armada drives
out to the field and sets up shop.
The transplanter is a curious affair. It's a small, two-wheeled trailer,
towed behind a tractor. On it are two rearward-facing seats for the
"setters" (so called because they "set" the tobacco); between them is a
vertically-looped conveyer belt which bears a number of rubber "fingers."
As the planter moves along, this chain-driven belt moves through a guide
which closes the fingers, in which the setters have placed a plant. The
plant is carried down inside a small plow, which has created a shallow
trench; as the plant's roots reach the trench, a dose of
insecticide-bearing water (from a tank on the rear of the planter) is
dropped in. Fertilizer (from a front-mounted hopper) has already been laid
alongside the trench.
As the fingers reach the bottom of their travel and begin to open, two
wheels roll past, gently squeezing the soil around the plant. Finally,
a herbicide mixture is sprayed along the row of plants.
This is a necessarily slow process; the setters can only feed plants so
fast. (In fact, they occasionally miss one or more, so that a small boy
(yours truly, for several years 8-) rides the water barrel with a peg
and a handful of plants, ready to jump down and fill in any missed spots).
An afternoon's work sees two or three acres set.
Two-row planters, requiring four setters, exist, and there are legends of
4-row monsters 8-)
The next step is to wait for a rain a week or so later. After the rain,
while the ground is still muddy, barefooted workers (another good job
for small boys who've recently read Huck Finn) walk the fields, looking for
gaps where plants have failed to survive the shock of transplanting.
They carry a few plants and a wooden peg, and reset these missing spots.
The plants are now largely on their own now for most of the growing
season; all that is done is to cultivate them about once every two or three
weeks. A small tractor with a set of "cultivators" (shallow plows,
designed to cut just below the soil surface) drives along each row,
uprooting the weeds growing between the row. During the earliest part of
the season, while the plants are still small enough to be shaded by weeds,
workers even manually hoe between the plants, where the cultivators can't
reach.
Next week: Flowers, Topping, and the Sucker Menace
Michael J. Lavery asks:
> But I do have a question: Does anyone know of a pipe shop in Columbus,
> Ohio? I believe that it was on Gay Street.
I know of several, but none on Gay. Perhaps you're thinking of Smoker's
Haven, on High Street just south of Gay ? 17 S. High Street,
(614) 221-4555.
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Bill Thacker att!cbema!wbt ??????????????????
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