A NOSE FOR TOBACCO

Growing tobacco is a complex, tricky affair in which a great deal can go wrong. The knowledge accumulated over the centuries as to how to arrive at the genuine, finished smoking tobacco can be overturned by a single false step - if you haven't got the nose. We visited a tobacco grower in the USA who has.

For Joey Holland, a tobacco grower in North Carolina, there are five seasons: autumn, winter, spring, summer - and the tobacco season. The time where, after 4 July, when Independence Day has been duly celebrated and the fresh tobacco is drying in the huge barns.

“That is the best season of them all, because ever since I was a child that smell has meant something special to me. When I first smell that aroma I know that July has come around.”

Some of the best soil for growing tobacco in North America lies in the gently rolling hills of Wilson County, North Carolina. And here, just over 150 km from the Atlantic coast, lies the farm belonging to Joey Wilson and his wife. In addition to this there are three more farms, as well as rented land from a total of 28 other farmers, big and small. So when Joey starts his pick-up truck and drives through the countryside he can look out across an area of 2,000 acres - more than eight square kilometres. An absolutely huge area, seen with European eyes. On the other hand tobacco cannot be grown on all the land. This is partly due to the fact that tobacco is extremely sensitive to soil conditions and partly because there are stringent regulations governing how much tobacco may actually be grown.

"This country was founded on tobacco""

Before tobacco is ready for ripening a great deal of painstaking work must be carried out on the huge farm. Work that, while it does involve the most modern technologies, is basically built up around centuries-old traditions.

“This country was founded on tobacco. When my forefathers came here, the first thing they learned to do was grow tobacco. Tobacco was their currency, so to speak. Because tobacco made it possible for them to pay for the goods they needed.”

At present, Holland Farms, as the company is called, has just over half a square kilometre of tobacco plants, which is still what corresponds to a reasonably big farm in Europe. The rest of the land is used to grow potatoes, cotton, Indian corn and soy beans.

“We have around 375 acres of good, well-drained sandy soil. But in order to keep the tobacco plants healthy and free from disease we rotate the crops over a three-year period. So we have to make do with 125 acres of tobacco.”

The tobacco grown here is the much demanded Virginia. The famous Burley tobacco is grown further inland where the mountains start. But if it was up to Joey Holland he would grow much more tobacco, as this is in fact the crop that the now almost 40 year-old farmer grew up with and that nurtured his desire to work in agriculture.

“My great-grandfather was a tobacco grower, then my grandfather took over his farm and my father after him. But my father had to retire because of poor health and I took over the farm when I was only 19 years old.”
 

“Everything can go wrong here if you're not very careful”

“Although my farm has grown and I now have many employees, it is still this process that I handle. Because if you're not very careful everything can go wrong.”

“If you take a first-class green tobacco, for example and put it in the drying barn, but dry it in the wrong way, it will end up as almost
unusable.”

The small seeds of the profitable plant must be planted as early as the middle of February. And due to the low temperatures this is done in huge, artificially heated greenhouses. Here a sowing machine places the seeds in a little compartment in a foam plastic tray. The trays float in water and as the roots gradually shoot through the bottom the plants are pruned.

“It's like cutting grass. The idea is that they should all be the same size and develop a strong stalk.”

Around 15 April, 65 days after planting, the seedlings are ready to be taken into the fields. The trays are carried out of the greenhouses and each plant is taken out of its compartment by hand and put into a planting machine - all by hand. This is done while the machine and the field hands drive across the fields. The machine then plants the small tobacco seedlings, and the ground around them is ploughed several times. Then comes the next phase, which is also pure, routine manual work.

“Tobacco plants are like all other plants. They try to produce seeds in order to reproduce themselves. A pretty flower grows at the top and this is where the seeds come from. But we don't want seeds, we want leaves. So as soon as the flowers appear we must go into the fields and break the flowers off each and every plant, on all 125 acres. Being a tobacco grower in North Carolina in the year 2000 means you have to be able to do a little of everything. So today I am a landlord, a financial manager and a director. Plus the top negotiator when I cultivate all my landowners, so that they don't rent out their land to others instead.”

“I don't have to punch a clock and I am still lucky enough to be able to do what I like best of all. I can't complain. The farm pays well, I don't have to punch a clock and I am still lucky enough to be able to do what I like best of all.”

It is not least when the harvest begins around 4 July and the tobacco has gradually begun to resemble what we are all familiar with that Joey Holland feels that he is really in his right element.

“I keep a close watch on the leaves. When the lowest four or five rows are ready, we harvest them. We use machines, but many people still do it by hand. Then we take the leaves from the wagon, still by hand, and lay them on drying panels in the barn.”

At the end of the barn there is a ventilator equipped with a burner that blows hot air between the leaves. The yellow leaves are first dried at a slightly lower temperature, around 50 degree Celsius and finally the stalks are thoroughly dried at a rather higher temperature, around 75 degrees Celsius.

“When the smell of the tobacco spreads across the farm, everything can really go wrong.”

The entire process takes six to eight days depending on how moist the leaves were originally when harvested. Four to five times a day Joey Holland walks through the barns to keep an eye on the delicate process.

“From the smell, combined with the appearance of the leaves and how they feel to the touch I know exactly when they have been through sufficient drying.”

And then follows something that appears completely incomprehensible to the layman. The dried leaves are given a shower, as at this stage the tobacco is completely crumpled and therefore impossible to handle in other ways.

“When we can spread the leaves out again we take them out of the drying barns, pack them in bales and they are ready to be sent to the auction at the local tobacco market.”