I don't know specifically about Albany County, but tobacco was and is grown
surprisingly widely (Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Connecticut and in
prior years Pennsylvania).  Different varieties have different cultural and
curing practices (i.e., shade grown, sun-cured, fire-cured, flue-cured) and
uses (cigar filler, cigar binder).  A "tobacco barn" might have been used for
storing and curing the tobacco.

 I grew up in Broome County on a farm that supposedly had grown tobacco in the
19th century.  Never confirmed it.

Bill Harshaw

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harold Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 1:45 PM


> A two hundred year old farm in the Town of Berne has a brick outbuilding
> with no windows. The owners refer to it as a tobacco barn. It has no
> windows. A similar sized brick building on a nearby farm was built as slave
> quarters. It has a window and a beehive oven in back. Would tobacco have
> been a crop grown in the hills of western Albany County in the late 18th
> Century? Would a tobacco barn have been built of brick?
>
> The farm with the "tobacco barn" will be open for a tour of three local
> Dutch Barns that is in the will be tour Saturday morning 9-12, June 16
> during Berne Heritage Days.
>
> Harold Miller
> Berne Historical Project www.Bernehistory.org
> Berne Heritage Days 2005 July 15, 16, and 17
>