Tobacco Documents Online

more than a century before by Gen. James Wilkin- son, In December 1789 he and his partner, Peyton~ Short, addressed a letter to Col. Isaac Shelby, a to- bacco farmer who later became Kentucky's first governor. One sentence in that letter was basic in the formulation of group action. It read: 1000 hogsheads of tobacco in the hands of one man uaill'stand a mueh better chance for a good market than the same quantity in twenty hands at any market. Prestvge F'oo1' An association of' Burley growers had already been formed before the bottom dropped out of'i the auction market in 1920. The growers' association was developed into a practical cooperative chiefly through the hard work and1nfluence ofJtAdge Rob- ert W. Bingham, editor of the Louisville Courier- Journal, Samuel Halley of Lexington, a, noted to- bacco planter and warehouse operator, andArthur Krock„then editor of'the Louisville Times. They had the support of financier Bemard, Baruch and they made effective use of'the legal talent of Aaron Sa- piro, an experienced man in forming,cooperativesi The first president andgeneral manager, James C. Stone, became a key figure in buil'ding,the Asso- ciation and maintaining its high prestige. There were more than, 55,000 members by November 19211;, by 1924 membership went over the 100, 000 roster. For the 1921 crop an average 21 cents per pound From Harqer's Manthly A quiet dky in Lexington, Kentucky's largest tobacco market town, 1889 46 I

had been paid for Association Burley. W3rehouses in Burley districts in Kentucky and other states had beenacquiredibytheAssociationwhich also graded', redried and' stored tobacco. For the first six years of its existence the A'ssociation, sold more: than 100: millioni pounds annually. Then, from about 1925, members begani to withdraw from the Association and from other pool- ing organizations: There were several reasons for the lack of membership:interest and the consequent decline of' cooperative groups. Chief of' these was that a farmer selling directly at auction was paid at once for his product. When his leaf went to the co- operative pool he.had to wait for a brief period'after it', was sold. A majority of'Association members re- fused to sign a new five-year contract in 1926, whereupon: the organization discontinued its opera- tions: Yet it retainedl its properties and' continued its corporate structure:. The M'odern Look The last hogsheads of leaf'sold' at auction in Ken- tiucky had been rolled off the warehouse floors dur- ing the 1929!-1930 season: No one,,except perhaps the coopers;, was sorry to see them go. In, varying, sizes they had been on the farm scene in tobacco colonies since their earliest settlements. They had made the primitive routes for land passage that developed into major highways. Now that', they were gone, everyone concerned wit h i growing and selling tobacco agreedl that loose leaf in hands, placed in baskets on auction floors, looked better, smelled "sweeter," and' sold better than iin hogsheads. Other changes were taking place. For some time the area just southi of'. Henderson had been known as the "stemming, district," as tobacco fromi that section had had, the woody stem and rnidrib, re+moved (stemmed) before packing. Nearly all of'this fire-curedleaf; produced in northwestern, Kentucky, was exported to Europe. But by 1949, when its har- vests had been reduced'to: under 100,000 pounds -it had been even lower in, the earlier'40's-culti} vation of this type was abandoned. Green, River to- bacco and fire-cured types from other Kentucky areas were as acceptable to foreign buyers and do- mestic manufacturers of snuff. 47

Counsel, Controls, Cooperation Government interest in the agrarian and economic problems ofl farmers became intensified during the depressioni years and' developed into programs of allotments and price supports. Tobacco as a basic commodity, soil conservation, parity, the AAA and the Commodity Credit Corporation,,marketing quo- tas and referendums were terms and, conditions that~ became part of the lives of farmers and sometimes a part of their vocabulary. Somehow, through the years of adjusting,them- selr+es to government counsel and controls, busy tobacco farmers foundi time to get to meetings where their economic status was under discussion. As a result of such meetings the practical operations of the twenty-year-old Burley Tobacco Growers. Cooperative Association were renewed in 1!941. Other tobacco-farmers" organizations followed I and now work closely with government agencies thatt are concerned with agricultural prices under the federal stabilization program. The Burley Flavor During the decade to 1970 there was a higher yield per acre fromi Kentucky's tobacco farms though acreage dropped. At the midpoint of this decade;, total acreage was about 188;000, with production of 455 million pounds effective quota with an average yield of' 2,420 pounds per acre and an average price of over $1.15 per pound. The cash receipts total from the sale of' Kentucky tobaccos represents more than half of all the value of'the total farm field' crops grown in the state. Americans are maintaining their reputation, as the largest consumers of tobacco anywhere and' they clearly show their preference for what is still referred to in the States as "the Burley blend." From the earliest period of setd'ement- to the present-tobacco has had a powerfull influence in shaping the economic and social life of' the Blue- grass State. In the fields; the auction warehouses, the factories, along the transportation routes, and in retail shops, Kentucky tobacco remains a vital element in the healthy economic life of the state. 48

I Current data on the tobacco industry in Kentucky have been de- rived from publications of' the United States: Department of Agriculture; the United States Departmeff of Commerce and the Bureau of' the Census; the United States Department of the Treasury''s Bureau of. AlcoholJ, Tobacco and' f=i'reanns;,andJ, the University of'~Kentucky;,College of Agriculture andlrelated divi- sions. Of special Ivalue was the UKA6 Report "Special Tobaeco Issue" preparedlby the College of Agriculture. A special note of': thanks is due to Ira E: Massie, tobacco specialist, University of'. Kentucky, College of'Agriculture Cooperatiue Extension. Other current~ data are derivedlfrom publications of~the,Tobacco Tax Council (Richmond, Virginia)', the I4ational, Association of Tobacco Distributors„ and various department and agencies of' the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Sources of' material on tobacco agriculture and commerce in the later 19th and' early 20th~ century were "Report on ... Tobacco," by'J: B. Killebrew (in the 10th,Census, 1880); The Production of White Budey, Tobacco,, E. J. Kinney; published by the College of Agriculture, University of Kentucky (1930); "Statistics of' M'anufactures of Tobacco," J. R! Dodge (in the 10th Census, 1880) and Export and'D4anufacturing Tobaccos of the United States, E. M. Mathewson,, U. S. BUreaw ofl Plant Industry (1912). The chapters on tobacco by Samuel H'. Halley in History of Kentucky; W: E. Connelley andlE. M. Coulter, ed. Charles Kerr (1922); were particularly ualuable, as was "The Tobacco Trade of Louisville," by T.,Gj Watkins in Memorial History of. Louisville, ed. J: & Johnston (1896)., Other usefullsecondary sources were The History, of Louisville,, B., Casseday (1852); The Wilderness Trail, C. A. Hanna (1911);,The,Spanish<Ameri+ can Frontier,A. P. Whitaker (1927); History of Kentucky ... before 1803, T. Bodley (1928); Pioneer Kentucky, W. R. Jillson (1934); The Bfack.Patch War,,J: G; Miller (1936); A History of Kentucky, T. D: Clark (1937);, History of Agriculture in the - Southem United States to 1860, L. C:,Gray (1941); The Keel' boat Age on Westem, Waters, L. D'. Baldwin (1941); The Story of Tobacco In America, JJ C. Robert (1967), and Kentucky Tra- dition, L. S. Thompson (1956);. The passage on p. 16 ~ is from Steed's Kentucky Tiobacco:. Patch (1947)l that on p. 21 is from Halley's article in the Kerr edition of'History of'Kentucky (1922); the quotation: on p: 23'' is from The Kentucky RiuerfVauigation, Mary Verhoeffl(Filson~ Club, 1917),, The present-day historian quoted oni p. 26 is Willard R. Jillson, from his Kentucky in American History (c. 1933): The portion i of': a letter on p. 27 occurs in Verhoeff; the . first quotation on p. 28 is from The Crockett Almanacs; ed. F. J. Meine (1955), the second from Mike Fink ... W. Blair and F. J. Meine (c. 1933); the excerpf on i p. 29' is from Verhoeff as is the report on p: 31.. Billings' book, quoted on p; 38, is Tobacco. Samuel Halley is the "practical tobacco man" quoted' on p. 41. Watkins' comment on pp. 41-42'appeared in his article in Mfemo- ria1, History of Louisville, ed. Johnston (1896), The passage om, p: 46 is from the Kerr edition of History of Kentucky (1922). Permission is quote directly from this booklet is gronted, Addi= tional copies will be made available without charge from:. The Tobacco : Institute 1776 K Street, N'. W.,, Washingtons D. C. 20006

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