Industry
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By the latter decades of the 19th century, bright-leaf tobacco harvested across Southside Virginia was typically cured in hand-hewn log barns outfitted with wood-burning stoves. Inside these barns, tobacco leaves were hung from sticks that rested on horizontal tier-poles. Flues, or ducts, distributed heat, which cured the leaves while protecting them from smoke. The leaves were then stored in pack barns, graded for quality, and sent to auction. Flue cure tobacco barns were retrofitted with oil and gas burners after World War Two and fell into disuse with the introduction of bulk-curing barns in the 1970s.
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Virginia · United States
