HUGHESVILLE — Tradition here means the rich, sweet smell of dried tobacco. It means cold, dusty air and bales upon bales of coppery leaves that rustle when handled. It means bantering with old friends ...

Farmers who have spent their lives tending the aromatic crop in their fields find comfort in Foy's rat-a-tat style, part of an auction system that's been all but snuffed out by another way of selling ...

When Dale W. Shelley was growing up on a tobacco farm near Green Sea, S.C., his hero was the auctioneer at the warehouse, “that fast-talking guy with the spring in his step.” During a tour in the Navy ...

RALEIGH, N.C. — The traditional chants of the tobacco auctioneer will be silent when flue-cured tobacco markets open this week, replaced by the soft clicks of handheld computers. A farmers cooperative ...

WILSON, N.C. -- The procession snakes its way around the burlap-wrapped piles of tobacco like some giant, many-headed caterpillar. Auctioneer Walter Wilkerson, echoing a chant perfected during the ...

American tobacco sales have been greatly affected by societal, market and regulatory forces. John Varner’s daddy started growing tobacco on the Cumberland County family farm in 1918, three years ...

In this Nov. 18 photo, auctioneer Tripp Foy, right, hands a tobacco purchase ticket to a buyer at an auction in Danville, Ky. DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Tripp Foy’s sing-song chant rang out like a ...

DANVILLE, Ky. >> Tripp Foy’s sing-song chant rang out like a sentimental oldie for die-hard farmers clinging to the old way of selling tobacco, as a small procession of buyers shadowed him down long ...