Tobacco Transplanting
These are two images from the 1950s depicting farm workers transplanting tobacco seedlings into rows. It is called transplanting because farmers plant tobacco seedlings, not tobacco seeds, in the field.
This is a black and white photograph of men transplanting tobacco seedlings in a field.
A black and white photograph of African-American farmers using a tractor and modern machinery to mechanize the tobacco transplanting process.
1. What was happening in the photograph?
2. Who was in the photograph?
3. Why do you think the workers were planting tobacco seedlings by hand? Do you think there was a benefit to planting by hand versus using mechanical tools to plant in the picture below?
4. What would be the benefits of mechanizing the transplanting process?
5. What obstacles do you think there were in implementing mechanization?
6. Which method would you prefer and why?