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What the man is doing is calledd "priming tobacco".
Past tobacco harvesting. The clothing the man is wearing usually was something old because the tobacco gum would ruin whatever you wore. If it is a jacket it was morning with dew on the tobacco and it could be chilly. The bag you see is part of the curtain on the tobacco truck. The tobacco truck was used to haul the hand picked leaves from the field to the barn. The tobacco truck had curtains on four sides that were let down as the "barn hands" took the tobacco out and looped it on sticks. Looking at the picture, I am sure this tobacco truck is being pulled by a mule.
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If you look really close you can see the mule's head!