Normal culture of Kentucky dark-fired tobacco results in plants with large, brittle leaves at harvest. To reduce leaf loss and damage during harvest plants are stalk cut, allowed to field wilt for a brief period, and placed on sticks ("spiked") for transport to the barn. One man will usually cut the tobacco, lay it down to wilt, and come back and spike it. With interest in use of mechanical harvest aids to improve harvest efficiency studies were undertaken to establish baseline date on the effects of conventional harvest techniques on harvest efficiency, leaf loss and damage in the cured leaf. Quantification of all aspects of conventional harvest methods is integral to evaluation of alternative harvesting technology. With conventional harvest, productivity (man hours per acre) was 8.1 for the one man, conventional harvest. Productivity dropped to 15.6-15.8 man-hours/acre when two men were used. Leaf loss for conventional one man harvest was 2.32 leaves per plant, increasing only to 2.38 leaves per plant when two men conducted the harvest operation. Crude green in cured leaf was classified as bruised tobacco. Results were inconclusive, but there were no apparent effects of different harvesting techniques on amount of bruised cured leaf. Using data generated from these studies, a two-man, mechanical harvest aid machine for use in dark-fired tobacco was evaluated. Comparing results from these trials with those obtained with a two-man mechanical harvest aid machine indicated that there is potential for development of harvest mechanization in dark tobaccos