"About seven or eight out of ten."

Those were the words David Breneman used to describee the success of his first crop of tobacco he planted on his farm west of Mount Ayr.

He said the cool, wet conditions throughout the summer stunted the growth of his crop in wet sections of his field, but overall he was pleased with his first crop. In fact he plans to plant about twice of much tobacco next spring.

The harvest of a tobacco crop by hand is physically demanding and Breneman joked his helpers told him they had never worked so hard in their lives.

Breneman said it took about 43 horus around Labor Day to harvest his crop, and he ended up with 3,300 lathes of tobacco leaves hanging in a newly constructed greenhouse. The warm, moist conditions in the greenhouse allow the leaves to dry slowly while maintaining their elasticity.

This week the Brenemans will begin the process of separating the individual leaves by hand and pressing them into 50-pound bales for shipping to Pennsylvania for sale. They hope to have this task accomplished by mid-January. He estimates his crop will total around 150 bales.

Photograph courtesy of Mount Ayr Record-News
Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2015