Early Tobacco Culture In This State
First Yellow Flue-Cured Tobacco Raised In Caswell County In 1852
Picked up from the agriculture
census of 1880, the story below
offers the first authentic and in
teresting sketch of the develop
ment in North Carolina of what
is now known as bright flue-cured
tobacco. The Slades mentioned in
the story may have been related
to the Slades in this county, but
the relationship was not close.
While tracing the development of
the "Tine tobacco," the story was
written as of 1880, and the current
reader can readily recognize the
developments as they have fol
lowed during the intervening
years. The story:
The development of the fine
tobacco interest in North Caro
lina exhibits one of the most re
markable transitions in the an
nals of agriculture. Its growth was
first begun in this State by two
brothers, Eli and Elisha Slade, of
Caswell County, upon a ridge
between two small tributaries of
the Dan river. Thg soil was thin
and sandy, and in comparison to
the river bottoms, was of little
value. About 1852 or 1853 the
Slades grew, by chance, as they
supposed, a small crop of yellow
tobacco. As it grew year after
year its peculiarities were at
tributed to special methods of
culture and curing. They com
municated their methods to all
inquirers, and it was soon found
that soil was the chief element,
although care in the modes of cul
tivation and curing wa also found
to be necessary to the production
of the best qualities.
From the plantation of the
Slades its growth extended over
Caswell County, and along the
same ridge into Pittsylvania
County, Virginia. This covered al
most the entire area of yellow to
bacco culture before the civil
war, when the production of to
bacco was almost entirely sus
pended. The war increased the
manufacture of tobacco in the
North, where no tobacco suitable
for plug or wrappers was grown,
and at its close attention was call
ed to the fitness of the North Car
olina yellow leaf for this purpose.
The price rose with the demand,
and the production extended to
other counties, especially to Per
son, Granville, and Rockingham.
Granville outstrips all competi
tors, although many other coun
ties have entered the lists, from
Buncombe and Madison, in the
west, where it is grown on the
slope of the Alleghanies, 3,000
feet above sea-level, to the coast
belt about Goldsboro, 200 feet
above the sea?a vertical range
of 2,800 feet, and a climatic range
equivalent to about eight and a
half degrees of latitude. While
yellow leaf may have been raised
in Virginia in small quantities,
this may be taken as an accurate
sketch of the origin and spread of
the new product in North Caro
lina and the contiguous counties
of Virginia.
Alongside the decline in wealth
in old areas of prosperity there
are other instances in the South
of the growth of thrift and wealth
I in communities which were poor
before the war, but no other sec
tion presents such wonderful
changes. Comfortable farmhouses
have taken the place of rude log
sabins, excellent and convenient
barns and outhouses exhibit the
new thrift, and new life has been
infused into all classes and into
both races. The distinctive feature
of this phenomenon is that it has
brought into requisition, as most
profiatble, the_ poorest soils in the
state, and wrought its improve
ments on the poorest farming
classes. It has also enchanced the
value of such lands until they ac
tually sell for more than the most
fertile bottom lands, and the
spectacle has actually been wit
nessed of a contention between
counties as to which could show
the most poor land. The effect of
this is practically to increase
largely the wealth-producing pow
er of the state, breaking down the
ordinary economic distinctions
between sterile and fertile lands.
T%e amount of this enhancement
cannot be given with even approx
imate accuracy, because nothing
definite can yet be known as to
the area of fine tobacco lands, the
continued value of poor lands de
pending alo on the stability of
the demand for such tobacco.
The population of Winston, For
syth County, in 1870, was 443. The
leaf market opened in 1872, and
one small factory was built, mak
ing 40,000 pounds. There are now
fourteen plug factories in opera
tion, and one smoking tobacco
factory not in operation. The plug
factories make 3,680,000e pounds.
Population in 1880, 2.8M.
Reidsville, Rockingham Copn
ty, had, in 1870, no corporate ex
istence. In 1880 it had 1,318 in
habitants and nine plug and two
smoking tobacco factories, with
a capacity of 3,000,000 pounds of
plug and twist.
Lands worth from $1 to $3 per
acre in 1880 now bring from |90
to 3100, and old fields, worn out
50 years ago and grown up in
pines?fields which would scarce
ly produce a bushel of corn to the
acre?are now often sold for $50
per acre.
Prog nas of the Tobacco Industry
The area of tobacco has been
enlarged in most of the counties
reporting, showing a gradual
growth from 1876 to 1879, Clay,
Guilford, and Warren alone re
porting a decreased area.
As to quality, the crop of 1179
is generally reported better than
that of the three years preceding,
only two counties reporting de
terioration in quality by compar
ison with 1876-*77-'78, and the
care directed to the production of
quality rather than quantity ren
ders the exhibit as to the yield
per acre apparently more unfav
orable, nearly half the schedules
reporting a decreased yield per
acre, two counties about the same,
and one-half an increased yield
for 1879, as compared with 1876
'77-'78. Of the comparison were
with the years when shipping leaf
was raised, the diminution would
be general; but this companion la
only in fine-tobacco culture. It ii
worthy of notice here that the
countiea where the industry la
older ihow increased yield. The
moat experienced planters haws
learned to combine body awd
weight with quality, and the pro
duction of differait grades in fea
crop, in comparison between 18TB
and 1808, shows the rapid rhufa
in the character of the product hi
1869 the shipping leaf averagsd
36 per cent; in 1879 IS per ceat;
while the proportion of fine to
bacco, wrappers, fillers and Hook
ers, was enormously InerSsstd in
all the countiea In many locali
ties fine tobacco has only been
groom since 1809.
The chief reason given for the
great change in the character of
the tobacco grown la the decline
in price for ahippmg leaf, coincid
ing with the demand for fancy
leaf at high prices
The deterioration of quality in
certain iotwlitiea is attributed to
the following causes: High prices
have led many to undertake the
culture of fine tobacco without
experience and on unsuitable
lends; others have been Induced
to plant more than could be per
fectly cultivated; and hasty and
careless handling and curing have
been the faults of still others; all
these resulting in the production
of much light, chaffy tobacco.
This deterioration is reported at
from 1 to 9 per cent in Granville,
which is the best fine-tobeceo
county.
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