I found myself dropping sticks in a tobacco patch one day last week. Well, in a way. I was caught up in a trip down memory lane.
Now, to the uneducated, the term “dropping sticks” might sound a bit foreign. It is not like you are walking through a tobacco patch and accidently let some sticks fall to the ground – like “dropping a stick.” Veterans of the tobacco patch, on the other hand, know that dropping sticks is a very important part of the tobacco cutting (harvesting) process.
In years gone by, when cutting and spiking tobacco was a two man operation, tobacco sticks were dropped on the ground between the two rows to be cut. As the cutter downed the two rows in front of him, he reached down, picked up a tobacco stick and handed it to the spiker. Then, he cut the next 5 or 6 stalks of tobacco and passed them back to be spiked. As the plants were cut and spiked, another tobacco stick magically appeared in the row. Best I can recall, my brothers and I were taught to lay (or drop) the sticks end-to-end, or let them overlap an inch or two. It was no small feat to tote an arm-load of tobacco sticks through big tobacco when dropping sticks that way. You kind of had to walk sideways.
In later years, and in today’s world most tobacco is cut and piled by the cutters – 5 or 6 stalks to the pile. Later, when the tobacco has “fallen” (wilted), the same ones who cut the tobacco come back and spike it. Even though the process is different, tobacco sticks still have to be “dropped.”
On the farm where I grew up my father had a simple philosophy when it came to cutting tobacco – “Make it easy on the man who follows you.” So, we were taught “the art” of dropping sticks. It involved two unspoken maxims: (1) Don’t make the spiker have to hunt for the stick. (2) If possible have the stick land with the high end of the stick near the butt-ends of the stalks in the pile. That may sound a bit technical, but it was really very simple – “Pay attention to what you are doing.”
I found early in my career you had much more control over where and how a tobacco stick landed if you spun it as you let it go. That is especially true if you were dropping sticks on more than one row as you walked through the tobacco patch. The thought of strategically landing tobacco sticks years ago brought a smile to my face.
The next thing I remembered was the weight of a bundle of 50 tobacco sticks. In this summer’s heat I would have been sweatin’ like a pig by the time I had unloaded the bundles at the tobacco patch.
I was pleased, once again, to recall the many personalities of tobacco sticks. I remembered some fashioned from a tree limb – dark in color – round and straight. And there were still a few of the “split-out” variety – irregular in shape and one-of-a-kind. There were skinny ones and heavy ones – some so big they felt like 2 by 4’s (And a chore to make the spike fit on.) And there were slick ones and splintery ones. It took me back to tobacco stick dropping heaven.
I miss those old tobacco patches. I suppose the sights, sounds, smells, and the “feel” of tobacco stalks, tobacco sticks, tobacco gum and tobacco knives became a part of me somewhere along the way.
Copyright 2025 by Jack McCall
