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The old barns of Bedford County
continued from p. 9
clean it up the old fashioned way, with a manure into bundles called “hands.” The hands were then
fork.” wrapped with a longer, pliable “tie leaf” and then
“My granddaddy had an old horse drawn manure the hand was split open.
spreader, with metal wheels. He had adapted it from “Every leaf was handled,” Teague says. “I have
a horse drawn tongue to a tractor (hitch).” memories of hanging tobacco in the barn ... I picked
Teague still has the Furgeson TO30 tractor they up leaves in the field when I was 3 years old.”
used to haul his grandfather’s manure spreader. “As
long as we went about the speed of a team of mules Form follows function
we wouldn’t tear it apart.” The design of a barn tells the history of a farm.
Barns with an attached silo were used for livestock.
Tobacco In Bedford County it was usually a dairy operation.
Many of the barns of Bedford County were built “It was very common for farms to have a handful
to cure tobacco. Tobacco barns were generally taller, of Jerseys,” Teague says. “They’d hand-milk the
with horizontal tier poles set 5 feet apart. Six foot cows, pour it into a milk can, set it out by the road
“sticks” of tobacco were hung from the tier poles. and the truck would come by and pick it up. They’d
The tobacco was cut in late July and by early store milk in a spring or a stream.”
August it was cured. Once cured the leaves were A little masonry building called a spring house
John Teague, from the Bedford stripped from the stalks and the leaves were tied was built on many farms. “My granddaddy’s
County office of the University
of Tennessee Agriculture
Extension Service
10 Bedford Life l Summer 2018