Kōrero: Hops, tobacco and hemp

A woman hand-picks tobacco leaves in Nelson, probably in the 1950s. When leaves began turning yellow, they were ready for harvesting. Hand-picking, grading, and preparing the leaves for curing in the kiln were all labour-intensive jobs, and harvest time saw an influx of seasonal workers into the Motueka area. When harvesting and tying machines were introduced in the early 1960s, the size of seasonal gangs declined.