The Farmville herald and farmer-leader. (Farmville, Va.) 1934-1957, 1956-02-03
|Dark-Fired Tobacco Acreage
Cut Means $4,000 Slash In
County's Agricultural Income
Growers Charge
Virginia Leaf
Has No Excess
BY JOHN STICK

by agriculture officialdom during
postwar adjustments Of over
production. but Virginia dark
fired tobacco growers now right
fully feel that adjustments must
stop short of completely elminst-
ing their chief cash crop.
They're pretty glum about the
IS per cent acreage cut ordered by
the USDA on 1856 production. For
Prince Edward county farmers
that's a l54-acre cut and another
SOS 900 slash IN income on top of
C.nels Of recent years.
No matter how small the farm
allotment was before the cut
and the county ASC office now
measures some allotments in
hundredthS of an acre-the 1856
slash was passed on across the
BOARD to every farmer.
500 Income Slash
To the individual farmer.
watching things boom for his
neighborS in white collars or in
shops and factories. a 500 cut in
the dwindling supply of operating
cash for 1856 is a pretty dismal
prospect.
Just now there's group of
dealers and W'arehousemen in
Washington, working with Con-
gresham Watkins NJ Abbitt to
have the cut restored. but there
is no assurance the USDA can be
moved to reconsider. especially
with the Washington officials
statistics corning unused
stocks on hand.
| But it's right on this point that
the patience of farmers and Vir-
GINA dealers, too. is beginning to
wear a little thin. They charge.
that the big pile-up of excuses
is in Tennessee and Kentucky
with Types % and % Of dark fired
leaf. The annual production there
is about IS. 900 900 pounds or three
times the annual Virginia Type 81
yield.
USDA's Figures
Types % and %. too. grade
differently and produce a differ
ent quality of tobacco of greater
weight and without the aromatic
qualities of Virginia leaf. which
is in demand for the foreign cigar
and smoking trade. in addition to
domestic requirements.
Virginia interests claim tn G
USDA'S figures of a 3.37 years
supply of tobacco-u-ithout an
other stick being marketed-muSt
be charged chiefly to the less de-
sil-able Tennessee and Kentucky
tobaccoS. Virginia Type 81 with
an annual production in. the
neighborhood of 10000, 900 pounds
after 1855 10 per cent cut. has
at most a one-crop supply on
hand and that is Mell below the
USDA's authorized Atwo- year-plus
allowance Of stocks on hand be-
fore cuts are required.
Look at Virginia market Stats
tics. our farmers say. Only IA per
cent of the 1855 crop is going into
the cooperative and warehouse
mems pools. They can't remem-
Der, with the possible exception of
one year a decade ago. when
prices exceeded the $50. $50. $40
and as high as $85. being paid
this year for Type 81 Virginia
leaf.
Agents Opinion
County Agent E. F.. Striplin says
the situation here is indeed de
press ng". because it touches SO
intimately what is still the coun-
tvs main agricultural cash crop
tobacco. Small farmers do not
have the available capital to con-
vert TO livestock or daiiying. and
they are clinging despondently to
their dwindling tobacco allot-
mcntS.
Farm observers say that if it
were not for pulp wood billets and
saw mill work income. the lot OF
The coun.y's small farmers would
be severe now. since the average
dark tobacco allotment is LA
acres and. for the average. the
cash income can't 90 much above
the $3.50 to $500 made on a acre
OF tobacco which takes a sum-
mer's watching and care.
The answer? Separate Virginia.
Type 81 from Types % and %
now Jumped together. simply as
dark fired tobacco for calculating
all statistics. Let the Virginia pro-
duction be in proportion to the
demand for it, instead of being
depressed by excessive stocks OF
Tennessee and Kentucky leaf.
Buyers can't fill their require
'nientS now, especially under re-
duccd aCrcagcS and reduced
amounts Of the top quality grades
which require larger paintings to
grow IN sufficient amounts.
Its Washington politics that
keeps the present classification of
tobaccos. they say. What they
want IS a substitution of economic
farm facts for politics. but. UNI
fortunately. they may not BE- like
the gal IN the song: what she
wants, she gets.
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