Populist Journals

Journal # 1

Today wasn’t my best day. First of all I had to scatter the tobacco seeds all around and just everywhere. Next, I had to put shredded horse manure over it, so it can have some fertilization. And Finally I had to cover the seedbeds with branches so my plants would not die of frost damage. And then these plants were left to grow until around April. After the plants have reached a certain height, they are transplanted into fields. This was originally done by making a relatively large hole in the tilled earth with a tobacco peg, then placing the small plant in the hole. Tobacco is harvested in one of two ways. The method I use is when the entire plant is harvested, I cut off the stalk at the ground with a curved knife.

Journal # 2

A big problem I have been having lately is with pests, mainly moths who just decide to come and eat up my tobacco. Also the price for my tobacco is so low it is very hard for me to make a decent profit. Furthermore, improvement in transportation allowed foreign competition to materialize, making it harder for American tobacco farmers to dispose of surplus crop. The final and largest problems were railroads, Extreme competition between rail companies necessitated some way to win business. To do this, many railroads offered rebates and drawbacks to larger shippers who used their rails. However, this practice hurt smaller shippers, including farmers, for often times railroad companies would charge more to ship products short distances than they would for long trips. Which