Tobacco

There are many different types of tobacco. In the United States, tobacco is often fertilized with the mineral apatite, which partially starves the plant of nitrogen, to produce a more desired flavor. After the plants are about eight inches tall, they are transplanted into the fields. Tobacco is cultivated annually. The entire plant is harvested at once by cutting off the stalk at the ground with a tobacco knife. It is then speared onto sticks, four to six plants a stick and hung in a curing barn. In modern times, large fields are harvested mechanically, although topping the flower and in some cases the plucking of immature leaves is still done by hand. Most tobacco in the U.S. is grown in North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia. These tobacco plants were spotted growing in a field in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I remember, as a child, my grandfather and uncles working in the tobacco fields in Bowie, Maryland. And, the tobacco hanging from the rafters in the tobacco barn. It gives off quite a unique smell which is hard to forget. There is no longer any farming in Bowie. Seeing these tobacco fields in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was quite a walk down memory lane.