| June 1940 | The Luster Tobacco Cultivating Society in Sogn county sells 5.000 kgs. "home-grown" tobacco to a dealer in Stavanger. Still 20-25.000 kgs Sogne-tobacco in store in Luster. |
| June 1940 | Tobacco manufacturers raise the price of 10-pack (low priced) from 49 øre to 55 øre, and 10-pack (higher qualities) from 68 øre to 75 øre. |
| October 1940 | Rumours regarding a forthcoming tobacco ration creates rush on several shops in Oslo which have to close. In Bergen tobacco traders complains of smaller deliveries. |
| January 1941 | Several calls for forced rations - also including tobacco and cigarettes, but the authorities await the situation. |
| February 1941 | The tobacco cultivators in Luster, Sogn county, ask the department for permission to cultivate tobacco also in 1941. On 5.000,000 m² it can be cultivated enough to cover 20% of the country's consumption. |
| March 1941 | The tobacco factories launches 25 grs. boxes of pipetobacco, compared to the earlier 50 grs. boxes. Several smaller factories ran out of tobacco, and the larger ones reduced the delivery with 20%. |
| June 1941 | The interest of cultivating "home-grown" tobacco blazed during the spring and summer. All over the Sørlandet, Østlandet and Trøndelag, and even as far north as Kvæfjord in Troms county, 300 kms north of the Polar Circle, people started to cultivate the tobacco plant. Many owners of house estates planted tobacco in their gardens. Later it became quite customary that firms and enteprises in the cities made contracts with farmers regarding cultivating tobacco. Most common types was "farmer-tobacco" and Virginia. It was a great demand for plants and seeds. The tobacco cultivators had to pay a State-tax, at least 20 Kroner. First the tobacco was dried, then moisted and yeasted (fermented). Some did this by themselves - later it was common to send the dried tobacco leaves to the factories which handed over ready smoking tobacco and cigarettes. Some prefered to delay their usual tobacco quota with the help of different substitutes, like heather and moss, prepared in various ways. |
| April 1942 | Sales of tobacco have fallen drastically since the shops' quotas been cut down to 40% of the 1939 quantity. |
| May 1942 | New "war-added-tax" on tobacco (20% on trade price). A gardener in Røykenvik, Hadeland county, got more than 200,000 tobacco plants awaiting to be planted out. He got orders from all over the country - seems like everybody wants to cultivalte their own tobacco this year. |
| December 1942 | Norwegian tobacco production is quadrupled since last year, the acreage is increased from 14,000 to 56,000 m². In addition comes the production from all the small cultivators. Sogn og Fjordane county is No.1 in acreage, closely followed by Hedmark county. |
| January 1943 | Larvik Tobakkfabrikk finished the fermentation of the Norwegian home-grown tobacco which they have received from the public (crop of 1942). Left is some finishing treatment, but within 8-14 days the ready product will be forwarded to the cultivators. |
| May 1943 | In the Sarpsborg area there will be cultivated some 150.000 tobacco plants this year. |
| May 1943 | Again on the 10th of May the tobacco ration was reduced. The ration-cards should still be handed out for males born before 1. January 1924 and females born before 1. January 1921. Separate cards for females and men. Miners and certain other categories of manual workers had the right to additional card. Male ration per cut on the ration-card was 25 grs. smoking tobacco or chewing tobacco, or 50 grs. snuff, or 20 cigarettes, or 16 cigars or cigar-cigarettes. Females could only buy 20 cigarettes. |
| August 1943 | There is no survey of how many tobacco plants which are cultivated in Norway, but the factories who are fermenting the tobacco, says that several hundred thousand plants are annonced. Around 15 leaves equivalent 75 grs. tobacco. |
| January 1944 | Cigarettes are used as regular payment - both on the black market and as exchange. Normal price on the black market is 1 Krone per cigarette, or ten times higher as in the shops. |
| January 1944 | The country's tobacco factories are going to market a joint tobacco brand, so called mahuni-tobacco. The raw material comes from mahorka/machorka (made from stems of the tobacco leaf, cut up fine, resembling sawdust) - a real Russian treat. The tobacco appears to have a distinctive character and a rather unpleasant smell and taste, but still some prefer it in preference to "home-grown". Popular, but wrongly mentioned as Hungarian Steppegrass! |
| May 1944 | Of the 1943 crop, 172 metric tons have been delivered to the factories for fermentation. This cover around 2 months of consumption for the whole country. In addition comes the tobacco prepared by the public themselves. This year it will be layed down 1.000,000 m² for contract cultivation of tobacco. |
| August 1944 | In Hadeland county there are together 1.200 large and small tobacco plantations. Many of them are not reported to the authorities. |
| September 1944 | In Trondheim it is stolen large quatities of cigarettes and tobacco - in one case it was stolen around 75.000 cigarettes and large quantities of tobacco. The city's black market is flooded with the stolen tobacco. Lier and Brandbu are the country's largest tobacco-rural districts. Lier got around 500,000 plants, and the biggest plantation is 5,500 m². Several cases of stealing has been reported, and the areas are now guarded. |
| October 1944 | A comfort for the many smokers: The Mahuni-tobacco sings it swan song - later it will be launched a new mixture of Polish and Italian tobacco which is supposed to be of better quality. Tobacco traders have been requested to sell out the Mahuni first. |
| February 1945 | More and more young ladies starts to smoke pipe... |
| April 1945 | Cultivation of tobacco can only be for self consumption, and as far as 20 m² area for each male member of the household. The total area must not exceed 5% of cultivable area. Allotment can not be used for cultivating tobacco, stated the Department of Agriculture. |
| Autumn 1943 sat both the general manager and the manager in the spraying shop. They treaded leaves on a steel wire and participated so in a kind of production Kværner Brug never had seen sooner or later. It was later to be major-general Reidar Holtermann who started it all - he who led the defence of Hegra Castle in the spring of 1940. He popped up one day at Kværner Brug and invited all interested employees to a farming project with an investment of 50 Kroner. Manager H. B. P. Lund jumped at the offer at once. Later that autumn plants of nearly 2 metres ornamented a field below Skaugum (a Royal estate) and a 4 tons truck transported the crop into the spraying shop - to the drying kiln. The plants hang in three levels, and the separate leaves was handed by the general manager and the manager. In a few days everything was bone dry. - Far too dry. A hose supplying steam was laid from the boiler room - until the crop was easy to handle for its purpose: Tobacco. And it went on to Tiedemanns factory for further treatment, and now it's time to quote the chief of archives Ole J. Jenssen: - It was with great excitement we met in the refectory a week later in order to divide the first 10 boxes in advance, but the result was more than expected. Together a total of 45 boxes of tobacco and 60 boxes of cigarettes for each. The boxes contained labels with "KB Mix" and "KB Master", specially designed by the factory's advertising manager. |
