Bobby Williams photo

Thomas Murray, left, and Gary Kornegay top tobacco the old fashioned way -- by hand -- on the Harold Bizzell farm in the Buckleberry community on Hardy Bridge Road near the Lenoir-Wayne line on Monday morning. Jimmy Lynch and Jerry Lynch, who grow about 40 acres of tobacco on the farm, said they could not get a tractor and topper into the field because of the wet conditions. So they decided to hire a crew this week to take the blossoms off the tobacco plants.