Tobacco

GRAVEL SWITCH - Ed Lanham of Logan Road has found a fairly inexpensive hobby to keep him busy when he's not working as agricultural agent at the Marion County Cooperative Extension Service in Lebanon. He uses tobacco sticks to make furniture, cutting boards, signs and an assortment of other items such as picture frames and lollipop trees. The wood is pieced together like a puzzle to show the different-colored wood and even the worm holes and knots. "I always wanted to do woodwork, but never took the time or had the proper equipment," Lanham said.

Recent widespread reports of cutworm damage in float beds are a good reminder for tobacco growers to keep a close watch on tobacco float beds and greenhouses to catch and treat small problems before they become big ones.  A few worms can do a lot of damage in a day or two on small plants. Problems can occur on plants beginning at the 2-leaf stage. On small plants, up to dime-size portions of the plant may be missing. Upon closer examination, you often find just the stub of the stem remaining and possibly a few partially consumed plants.

PAINT LICK — In an annual ritual signifying the end of the summer growing season, older men followed a familiar path hewn by younger men through rows of golden tobacco leaves Thursday afternoon. The young men were competitors in the 29th Garrard County Tobacco Cutting Contest, a battle for speed and accuracy that came down to what has become a predictable finish. In the event at Roy Noe’s farm, Alvin Stamper of London edged out Garrard resident Daniel Edgington for the fifth year in a row, cutting 4.1 sticks (six plants each)

The 2010 tobacco growing season is nearing an end and farmers need to begin preparing now to manage diseases in the 2011 crop. There’s no way to tell what disease pressures growers will face in the coming growing season. Much depends on the climate when dealing with diseases like blue mold and target spot. However, some problems will show up again and again once certain diseases become established in a transplant system or the field. It is important to think about managing diseases like Pythium root rot, target spot, black shank and Fusarium wilt now and not wait until the upcoming production season.

For countless people in central and eastern Kentucky, tobacco has been a way of life for generations. But now that the small tobacco farms are slowly disappearing, Kentuckians are looking for creative ways to preserve the past. Sisters Jaque Adams and Susie Turley are taking an object that tobacco farmers are very familiar with, the tobacco stick, and turning it into a form of art. The sticks, which are used to hang the tobacco during the drying process, are becoming a thing of the past along with the small tobacco farm, but Adams and Turley have found a new use for the sticks.

Dear Editor, About every restaurant in Danville has a "no smoking" ban but your on-line newspaper has these pretty pictures of tobacco hanging in the barn. Are you for the smoking ban or are you for smokers' rights? Please declare yourself one way or the other. Brenda Pemberton Hustonville

Every year on May 31, the world celebrates World No Tobacco Day, sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system located in Geneva, Switzerland. This year's World No Tobacco Day focuses on 100 percent smoke-free environments. Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world and the leading cause of death in the United States. Hitting closer to home, tobacco kills 7,700 adult smokers in Kentucky each year.

Dear Editor: In response to the question of how people who smoke can live to be 70 or 80 years old, they're lucky. The health risks associated with smoking - including many different types of cancer and heart disease - only increase as a smoker ages. To point to a single example of a smoker who has managed to beat the odds is to ignore the enormous amount of credible scientific research that has proved beyond a doubt that smoking is harmful to both the smoker and everyone around him. Jen Thompson Arlington, Va.

Dear Editor, I was just wonder what our state senators and state representatives have been doing to let our state get into this type of budget crisis. Have they had their heads in the sand for the last few years while Gov. Fletcher and his bunch of crooks have been giving away all the state's money? The senior citizens of this state are outraged - as they should be. Yes I'm for a cigarette tax, and what about a tax on wine, beer and all other alcohol products sold in Kentucky.

Dear Editor: Tobacco use is the current leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, alcohol is the third cause of preventable deaths in the nation. In the Jan. 19 issue, the journal states that tobacco causes 18.1 percent of American deaths, and alcohol causes 3.5 percent. Tobacco is also the leading cause of preventable death for Kentuckians. There is no way that alcohol use could be blamed for causing more deaths than tobacco.

Recent widespread reports of cutworm damage in float beds are a good reminder for tobacco growers to keep a close watch on tobacco float beds and greenhouses to catch and treat small problems before they become big ones.  A few worms can do a lot of damage in a day or two on small plants. Problems can occur on plants beginning at the 2-leaf stage. On small plants, up to dime-size portions of the plant may be missing. Upon closer examination, you often find just the stub of the stem remaining and possibly a few partially consumed plants.

You know an idea's time has come when those once among the most inclined to run from it are the ones leading the charge on its behalf. The recent support from federal and state leaders indicate hemp's moment has finally arrived. Legalizing industrial hemp is an idea worth looking at for the sake of farmers and Kentucky's economy as a whole. The state shouldn't maintain obstacles to what could be beneficial for agriculture and give Kentucky a niche as the earliest re-adopter of a resurrected cash crop.  For decades following hemp's criminalization, those arguing in its favor were marginalized as pot smokers seeking a Trojan Horse to conceal their real agenda: the legalization of the plant's cannabis cousin, marijuana.  That has all changed thanks to the vocal campaigning of Agriculture Commissioner James Comer and Kentucky's junior senator, Rand Paul.

The Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association has announced the 2013 BTGCA Scholarship applications now are being accepted. The Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative will award four $1,000 scholarships to students for the 2013-2014 school years.  The scholarship is awarded on the basis of the student's overall grade point average, writing ability and leadership potential. All applicants must have a minimum overall GPA of 2.5 from their current educational institution.  The association will show preference to those applicants who have a tobacco farming background.

The Farm Service Agency for Lincoln, Garrard, Boyle and Mercer counties said 2013 tobacco buyout payments that were eligible to be made were paid on Jan. 15. If you have a direct deposit on file, check with your bank to verify deposit. If you changed bank accounts and did not inform FSA of the change, your payment has probably been returned. You will need to come to the office to revise your direct deposit.  Anyone who does not have a direct deposit on file will receive a paper check, but it will take longer to receive.

If you stop long enough and enjoy all the natural wonders of our environment, you will notice fall is in the air again. Although we have not had a very hot summer this year, I am still anxious for autumn to arrive.  Everywhere you look there are impending signs of autumn, but none are more prominent than the changes in tobacco fields.  Lush green leaves of tobacco have now turned a pleasing yellow, signaling the time to reap the harvest....

The owner of Discount Tobacco wasn't the only one charged from last week's raid. According to court documents, state police also charged the person who admitted to delivering the synthetic drugs to the Winchester store. On Thursday, Kentucky State Police detectives executed a search warrant at Discount Tobacco in Shoppers Plaza after they made several undercover purchases of synthetic marijuana at the business. According to the search warrants, detectives and cooperating witnesses made three purchases of synthetic marijuana at the store between July 20 and Oct. 3. All the packages tested positive for methanone, which is a synthetic drug, according to the search warrant.

State police detectives found a little more than they bargained for when they raided a Winchester tobacco store. According to the Kentucky State Police, officers with the drug enforcement and special investigations branch executed a search warrant Thursday at The Discount Tobacco Store in shoppers Village Plaza. Police obtained the warrant following several purchases of synthetic drugs at the business. When officers arrived Thursday afternoon with the warrant, they discovered an illegal gambling operation within the business as well.

With the 2012 tobacco growing season coming to an end, growers are working hard to get their crops into the barns. On one hand, the dry conditions of this past summer have kept leaf diseases like frogeye and target spot in check and we have not seen any blue mold. On the other hand, we saw more black shank and Fusarium wilt than we have for the past three or four years. Looking forward to the next growing season, it's hard to say what will be the big disease issue. So much depends on the climate when we are dealing with diseases like blue mold, target spot and frogeye.

Would you sell your soul for a drink of whisky? Before Danville and most of Boyle County went wet, plenty of half pints of liquor were given to tobacco farmers who sold their tobacco at the local tobacco auction barns, and no doubt there were bootleggers and moonshiners selling illegal booze when Boyle County was dry. I believe it is unethical for Planned Parenthood to take money for federally-funded partial birth abortions, and all the nurses...

Terry Clark Morgan, 79, husband of Margaret Morgan for 46 years, died at his home after a brief illness. He was born in Michigan Feb. 1, 1933, to the late Harley Lafayette and Mary Madeline Morgan. In addition to his wife, survivors include sons Michael Morgan and Craig Morgan and wife Cheryl; grandchildren Hannah Grace and Evan Morgan; brother Charles L. “Chuck” Morgan and wife Barbara; nieces Chelsea Nienabor and husband Bob and Ellen Pelfrey and husband Brad; a great-niece; and two great-nephews.