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A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

My band students were always looking for a way to make a little extra money, so the crew that I used to
replant the missing tobacco plants largely consisted of boys from the band, whom I paid a fair wage.

Then it was my total responsibility to get the tobacco harvested and to pay all of the labor that the
harvesting required, which was usually a considerable amount of money. Rodney paid for all of the
machinery used in planting and harvesting the tobacco, and he paid for all of the fuel that this machinery
consumed, but 1 had to pay all ofthe labor and half of the fertilizer bill. After the tobacco was harvested
it was Rodney’s duty to see that it was properly cured and made ready for market, and he was in charge
ofthe marketing.

Rodney was quite skilled in marketing our tobacco, and he was knowledgeable enough to know when
one of our sheets of tobacco did not bring what it should have brought. After the tobacco was auctioned
off, the grower could refuse to take the price that had been offered, and Rodney was an expert at
knowing when to turn a sale down, on any one particular sheet of tobacco. I think that every time he
ever turned a sale down, we made money on the resale. At the end ofthe marketing season, we would
split the gross income right down the middle, half to him and half to me, and that was a very profitable
way for me to spend my summers, when 1 was not having band practice. Those were the good old days,
but I must say I do not miss growing tobacco too much.

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