The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-05-23

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Turning over a trunk Of old manu-
scripts and printed articles of our own
recently we found short communication
by us in the Raleigh Daily News, and
dated Oxford, n. c., August -21.aST4.
1t gives SEINE tobacco statistics Gf that
great tobacco county, Granville. Some
of the statistics have been given by us
since our residence in this city beginning
in 1876. Some of the facts and figures
we have not since reproduced. To show
what one county used to accomplish, we
will restate some of the facts:
Mitchell Currin received over $4,000
for his crop that was made by his two
sons, aged respectively about 10 and Is,
assisted by a smaller brother who was an
invalid. and who only worked about half
Of the time. Seventy-fve dollars were
expended for fertilizers and So for extra
help. That will do. This was some
three years ago.
Dennis Tilley sold about the same time
in Richmond. Va. nineteen tierces, re-
ceiving $751; per 100 for the lowest, and
$131 for the highest. Mind you, this was
for leaf. Only the other day-22d July
he obtained the prize Of $40 at a great
tobacco fair at Danville Va. He OBJ
tanned S195 per hundred pounds. Out of
twelve prizes offered. eleven were taken
by North Carolinians. and that in a Vir-
ginian market. We believe Mr.. Tilley
was the only one from Granville who
competed and the result is as above given.
Joseph Adcock sold eighteen tierces
the other day. averaging $50.
Jas. Il. Hobgood, father Of President
Hobgood, of Raleigh, averaged S54 for
his crop.
90 July 18th. seven tierces sold at
Henderson for $14.75. $3.50, $45, $42.5O
$5S, SEQ, $3.50. These prices are not at
all unusual.
But let us give the precise figures of a
farmer living four miles from Oxford and
not in the richest tobacco section of the
county. Mr. Is. +. Hester is an alumnus
Of Wake Forest College. He gives the
following:
Here are figures for 1873: Number Of
acres planted, 10; cost Of fertilizers per
acre, So; amount received for crop, per
acre, $3.50; total crop for ten acres, $4,-
500; hands worked, 2 men and 2 boys;
estimating the force at 3 men his average
per hand was $500. Mr.. Hester raises
his corn, fodder, wheat, oats, and bacon,
The above is about the average of his
cropping for the last four years"
There were scores of farmers who prob
ably equalled Mr.. Hester in prices, and
some like Tilley, the Peeds, Washington,
Daily, Rev. B. F. Hester (another man
Of the same name) and some others aver
aged even more than Mr.. H. did. We
wrote to the News:
Il am sure that there are ten men in
Granville county who average 81, 200 to
every hand they work, for tobacco alone,
besides making everything they consume
i'll the way of cereals, meat, etc"
That was twenty-three years and more
ago. Prices range low now. The deadly
blight of the rapacious trust rests upon
the growers of fine tobacco. The value
Of an acre in tobacco in North Carolina
has indeed fallen when it is but S59.5S
And yet at cents pound for cotton
there is more money in tobacco per acre
at present low prices. But mark, it is
impossible to cultivate as many acres in
tobacco as in cotton. Mr.. Hester wroked
three men and cultivated in tobacco but
ten acres, making other things also. Mr..
Dicken, in Edgecombe, in 1870, on
twenty-one acres made himself twenty
1ne bales of cotton. He received S2,100
for his crop. The Jacksonville Times
Union considering the highest averages
If tobacco says:
THE higher value per acre of the to-
,acco crop of Connecticut is due to the |
act that the growers in that State all |
understand the business, while in Florida |
many of them are without experience. |
t is also probable that as Connecticut is /
twenty-five times as thickly settled as