Tobacco barns, near Delhi, Ontario
Tobacco is still a widely grown crop in the warmer climate of the very southern part of Ontario around Delhi. It is often picked by Mexican workers. The Canadian tobacco growing industry is in sharp decline, largely due to social changes brought on by health concerns, but also due to rampant tobacco smuggling and legal imports from the U.S.
In 1975 I was a Flemish student working on a tobacco farm in Langton. The farm, as the were others, was run by Flemish immigrants (second and third generation). The job was rather tough but was well paid. It was quite an experience for a young lad.
I used to work as a kiln hanger less than 20 miles from where this photo was taken. The colour scheme (green with red doors and white trim) is very typical.
Those buildings are not barns, they are kilns. Each of them contains a burner, which is a sort of furnace. The tobacco leaves are stitched together so they hang from wooden sticks, typically 1200 sticks per kiln, spaced about 6″ apart with about 3′ vertically between tiers. The green tobacco is heated for 8 to 11 days to cure it, after which it is yellowish-brown in colour.
Thanks Trevor. Most of my photos are geotagged with the exact location. If you view the same photo on my Flickr page, you can see the exact location by zooming in on the map in the top right corner:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardmcguire/3715223356/in/set-72157606093594312
There are many such tobacco barns in the entire area though.
Hi Richard:
Great photo – thanks for sharing. I’d like to find some of these myself to take pictures and measurements. Do you remember where in the Delhi area you found these? Or did you just come across them by chance?
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
– Trevor