STEAMING TOBACCO BEDS

369 South Harrig Street Madisonville, Kentucky 42431

I was born at Adams, Tennesee, in Robertson County which is the
heart of the tobacco growing country, both air cured and dark
fired. There are large tobacco markets located at Springfield and
Clarksville, Tennessee, and at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, all located
within a radius of 30 miles. Tobacco plant beds were either burned
or steamed. When one was to be burned, the ground was cleared off,
then brush and small logs were cut and piled up several feet high
and then burned to kill the weed seeds, insects and etc. There was
also a device called a burner. It had a set of wheels on one end
and handles on the other. It was about 8 feet long and 3 feet wide,
consisting of a pan-like piece of metal with an opening on the end
where the wheels were located for the smoke to come out. The fire
was built under it and the loose dirt was shoveled up on the burner
and cooked and then shoveled off the burner and put back on the
plant bed. In steaming, a portable boiler or, most of the time,
traction engines were used. A rectangular metal box usually called
a pan, 9 x 12 feet and six inches deep was used. The ground was
prepared by plowing or was forked up.

The pan was put on the ground. Dirt was packed all around it to
make it steam tight. Then steam was piped to it from the engine,
usually with a inch pipe. Of course, the higher steam pressure that
was used, the better the ground was prepared with usually 150
pounds pressure being used. A fellow that I knew always bragged
about the high pressure he had, 175 pounds. He was steaming with an
old Keck-Gonnerman engine. I happened to see it one time when it
wasn’t under steam and the steam gauge hand was sitting on 50
pounds. The water in the boiler was kept as low as was consistent
with safety. To make the steam hotter and drier, a pan was usually
steamed from 20 to 30 minutes depending on the farmer that was
having the steaming done. Some people steamed 25 minutes, allowing
5 minutes to move the pan and get set again. That would give you
two pans an hour. A pan had three metal loops on each side and two
on each end.

Back in the early days it had to be picked up by men and moved.
Large sticks of wood, something like a wagon standard, were cut.
They were stuck in the loops and it took six good men to pick it up
and pack it. In later years they were put on wheels with arms, a
winch and cable operated by an electric motor and battery to pick
them up. Others put cables in the loops with a ring in the middle,
had a boom made and picked it up with a 3-point hitch tractor. The
last plant bed I steamed in 1978 took just three of us. I took care
of the engine and moved the pipe and the other two took care of the
tractor and pan. The farmer had to furnish all the labor and coal
and water for the engine plus feeding the engineer at the noon
meal.

Steaming was the best way to prepare a plant bed. It killed all
the weeds, insects, and bugs and conditioned the ground. As soon as
the pan was taken off and the steam cleared, the plant bed could be
sown and the canvas put on to keep weed seeds from blowing in so
you would have plenty of strong healthy plants to set. Chemicals
are now being used as it is hard to get farm labor, and where coal
used to sell for $3.00 a ton, now it’s $25.00, plus the fact
there are not too many steam engines left. Back in the 30s in
Robertson County, doing custom steaming was Sam Duff with a 20-60
HP Case, Luster Strange who had a 19 HP and 22 HP Keck-Gonnerman,
Connell McEwing who ran Mr. Q. Flynn’s 26 HP Advance compound.
Tobe Overby had a 16 HP Advance that he had graded roads with. The
drivers were worn slick, plus a big part of the left drive wheel
had been broken on a rock. The engine going across a field reminded
you of a man with one leg shorter than the other.

Mr. Tobe was one of the lowest water men I’ve ever seen. All
he wanted in the water glass was a little moisture. He guaranteed
that if any weeds were in the plant bed there was no charge for the
steaming. Charley Browning had a 20 HP Advance that he used for
steaming in the winter and put in a saw mill in the summer. Dick
Mitchell had a 14-mile run. He would go to the far end and steam
back home. He had a 20 HP double cylinder Nichols and Shepard
engine with a big water wagon, pan wagon and a Buick automobile
tied on behind. Going down the road, that was a sight to see!