Tabor City tribune. (Tabor City, N.C.) 1946-1991, 1956-08-01
BY ". M. JOHNSTON
Horny County Agent

turtles. The first crop being ex-
tensively grown in the county
was indigo, followed by rice, and
the old rice fields in the lower
part Of the county are mute tes-
timonials to the passing of this
crop long years ago. Then fol-
lowing rice, there was cotton
and turpentine and then tobac-
co. While we still grow a few
thousand acres of cotton, it is
no longer our principal money
crop, but gave way to a crop
commonly known as weed"
According to the best inform
alton we have been able to COL
lect, flue-cured tobacco was
first grown in Horny County in.
What is now Green Sea town.
ship near the present postoffice|
of Green Sea some sixty-five
or seventy years ago. About 20
years ago one of the original to-
bacco barns still stood near
Sea.
Spread From N. c. II
The crop sort of spread over
from neighboring North Caro-
lima and gradually spread over
the entire county taking the
place of almost all of the pre-
viouS cash crops. Even thought
the yields per acre were COM
paratively low based on today'sI
standards and the cash returns
per acre were proportionately
low, it proved to be one of the
main sources of cash money to
the farmers of the county.
We do not have at our dispos-
al any records of yields and val
ue per acre until some twenty
one or two years ago, when the
first farm program known as
the AAA was brought into be-
ing. Up TO that time the acreagel
planted TO flue-curcd tobacco in
the county varied in accordance
to prices received for the crop
the previous year, and We uG-
dcrstand that some years the
prices were very low. Even so,
it was a better crop than any
thing else that was being grown
at that time.
1888 Sign Up
In the tobacco sign up OF 1888.
a yield of approximately $50
pounds per acre was established
for the county and a total acre
age of somewhere in the neigh
hood of $4,000. Since that time
with the exception of one year.
tobacco acreage controls have
remained in effect and the yield
per acre has gradually increased
annually from that time on with
the exception of years when adj
verse weather conditions were
encountered.
The total value Of the tobacco.
crop IN Horny County has rang
ed from around S3,OOO.OOO in the
early 1905 up to almost S25.-
100000 in the early l950's, an
increase of approximately 500
percent. record which not
many of the crops anywhere in
the United States have enjoyed.
Acres planted to tobacco in
! Horny County have increased
from around 1900 in the early.
1905 up TO around 10000 in the
early 1950's and the yield per.
acre has increased from around
$50 pounds per acre in the carly
l93OS to an estimated l.475I
pounds for 1855. These incrcas-I
es in yield per acre haze been
brought abouct by Sevral factors
Iamong which are impovcd var
Iicties, closer spacing, and better
handling.
AT the present time, tobacco
growers and their model control
program is the envy of practi-
ally all kinds of farmers in
GLIDING livestock producers. and
rightly so since there are no
other crops grown in this part
of the county anywhere that
will anyway near rival the tota. |
dollars and cents return per acre I
o. fluC-Curcd tobacco, and we
here in Horny County some
times fail to realize what the
great advantages arc that we
have, over most of the counties
in this state and in other South
ern states. At the present time.
Horny County grows from twCn-
~ to twenty-five percent of all
tho fluC-curcd tobacco grown in
South Carolina. and is one of the
three highest producing tobac- ]
20 counties IN the world. 4 re- I
cord We should b. proud Of and
4 position ". sI1uiI ever try to
keep.