Newspapers / The Enterprise (Williamston, N.C.) / Aug. 18, 1942, edition 1 / Page 9
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Tobacco Production Control Three Hundred Years Ago Feed Crops Deserted For Tobacco In 1619 Tobacco Farmer Was Required To Plant Two Acres Of Grain Control Program Quiet Now As Compared To Wran gles Years Ago tobacco control are twins; both were bom the same year. In 1619 the first representatives were sent to James town to inaugurate the American principle of self-government. It was the same year that the first statutory regulation was adopted for controll ing tobacco in England's American colonies. When compared with colonial as sembly wrangles, and tobacco riots of the seventeenth century, farm control among the farmers of today is quiet, peacadnl. cooperative and effective. Three hundred years ago, when tobacco regulation was truly "specific", farmers were told how many plants they, could set and the number of leaves to be taken from each stalk. There are reports which relate strange tales of mountaineers seek ing "tobacco" vmgaanrr whan fam ilies turn from friendships to lauds. Without an ftajf of the economic problem of supply versus demand, they destroyed plants grow ing in the field if they were unable to kill members of the rival family. There are records which tail of night riders who cut growing tobacco on eastern plantations in an effort to curtail production. This was the work of a mob of farmers overcome by fear caused by overproduction and low prices. In 19U plana were begun for the present triple "A" tobacco control. Too much tobaeoo and low prices seemed to he problems the individ ual could not solve. Without govern ment restriction in 1939 unlimit ed production and the war conditions caused a collapse of the tobacco mar ket. Now the war situation is worse, but the adoption of the three year government control has lifted the leaf prices to an average consider ably higher than the 1939 level. Seventeenth century acts provided a more detailed plan, but enforce ment machinery was not as com plete. The difference in applying the laws accounts for the difference in results. "New deal" official, did not start the idea of government regu lation of agricultural products, but the details of effective control did originate with The attempt to protect farmefs from low tobacco prices is a story that begins a few years alter the first permanent English colony at Jamestown in 1807. At that time there was no marketing problem, for the Indians had no worries caus ed by "cheap" tobacco. In 1812, John Rolfe, the man who married Poca hontas, was cultivating tobacco. He improved the quality of the weed very much; and the popularity of this crop increased until the king of England feared all other crops and industries would be neglected. In structions were received from Eng land on several occasions which re quired the establishment of other industries, for the rulers were afraid that a colony built upon "smoke" would not prosper. Tobacco soon be came "king" in the colonies, and was planted in the streets of Jamestown. The planters tried the get-rich quick idea, and their overproduction flooded the market. The first statute passed in an effort to solve this problem wss in 1619 and required the destruction of the lowest grades. The act specified that tobacco should be carefully examined by four "viewers." It required all leaves "found to be worse in quality than those appraised at eighteen pence a pound to be burned on the spot" England did not hesitate to place a tax on tobacco, for it was a rich source of revenue. Too, this was one of the best means of control. One English writer says that the Stuart rulers hampered "the colonists of America with restrictions; because they were alarmed lest the ground should be entirely devoted to tobac co, and no corn grown, as the latter was much less profitable than the former." To protect the prices by cutting down the quantity shipped to Eng land, a new law was passed by the colonial assembly to make the act against exportation of bad leaves more effective. Experienced judges wore provided to inspect the ship ments. All condemned tobacco was destroyed on the spot. The planter who tried to export the condemned quality forfeited his right to plant tobacco again until the assembly re moved his disability. At this time, 1810, a stringent reg ulation had been adopted requiring the planting of at least two asses of grain far each person setuslly en gaged in cultivating the soil Lang before setilws moved into Carolina, fawners ware told what to plant and what kind of product they could place on the market for sale. lb improve the effectiveness of the regulative sets, s member of thg.Virginia Council was required to be present when the tobacco was judged. One day each week was set for Inspection, and ware houses war* created. The legislators were trying to belp the planters solve the prob HIGH YIELD After retarding oats as a fill er in the farm feed program for rears and rears, Martin County farmers are gradnalir entering the eammereial field with the crop. According to a thresher's report for 1M1, Martin fanners produced and threshed 114 acres of oats for commercial use. The yield, 44.1 bashsis per acre, ranked among The highest in the State and was 16.1 bushels above the average preductioo. Only two counties, Bertie and Bladen, had a greater per acre yield, aad In thoee instances the lead was quite small. The trend toward commercial grain production has brought in to use a fairly large number of oombines. It was only a few years ago that there was no or only one or two threshing ma chines in this county. lem of overproduction, low prices, and the danger of bankruptcy. A subsequent act limited the num ber of plants a man could have in one year's crop to two thousand. An outsider checked the crop; and if too many plants were found, de struction of the entire crop was re quired. Today, only the extra acre age is cut down. From each of the two thousand stalks, only nine leaves could be gathered, and under no cir cumstances could sucker leaves be used. In 1631, the quota was reduc ed to fifteen hundred plants. No group leaves could be offered for sale. The penalty for selling one gshead of tobacco containing group leaves, in the colony was forfeiture of three hogsheads; and for exporting one, ten were forfeit ed. At a later date these restrictions were revised to include protection from stalks hidden in the leaves im ported. Virginia's quota for exportation was limited to one million, five hun dred thousand pounds in 1639, and to one million, two hundred thous and pounds for the next two years, 1640 and 1641. During the Puritan revolution in England prices continued low. Thus in 1683, commissioners from Mary land and Virginia met in an effort to establish a mutual plan for con trolling production that priths might be boosted. Maryland favored pro hibiting all planting of the smoke herb for one year, but Virginia tried to pull a smart one by suggesting that transplanting be permitted un til June 30th. This would have per mitted the old dominion farmers time to set their plants; but Mary land landowners would have suffer ed, for their season is later than that of Virginia. The conference ended without an agreement. Overproduction was the result of no effective legal control of the far mers' crop, and in 1666 the planters had on hand a large quantity of the previous year's crop. The crisis was so great that the authorities in Vir ginia and Maryland agreed to unite for an enforced cessation of plant ing. All cultivation of tobacco from February, 1666, to February, 1667, ws prohibited provided the recent ly settled county of Albemarle would abide by the same regulation. Albe marle agreed, but it was so late in te season before negotiations could be completed that Maryland with drew her support. This prevented the enforcement of the control plan whereby no one could plant tobac co in these colonies for a twelve month period. This plan was revived in October, 1666, was adopted, and failed again. This time the disapproval of Balti more, proprietor of Maryland, caus ed the restriction to fall through. In 1667, the price of tobacco fell to a low mark of one-half a cent per pound. No relief came; for when one man cut his crop, another increased his. Soon a race would be on for the larg est acreage. Like inflated currency today; the cheaper the tobacco, the more people needed it to purchase supplies. About ten years later, in 1679, the tobacco crop was so large that a considerable surplus could not be disposed of until the follow ing year. Nevertheless, the 1680 crop in Virginia, was the largest that col ony had known. The unsold surplus at that time exceeded the quantity needed to supply the market for two years. There was a pathetic appeal made by the planters for control; but the Commissioners of Customs in London vetoed the idea, for they feared that Dutch, French and Span ish expansion would receive all the benefit resulting from the cessa tion. This was the real crisis. The sit uation was desperate. Even in Lon don there was a fear that the colon ists under the pressure of want would rise and plunder the stored supplies, and would rifle ships upon their arrival in port. One Virginian was of the opinion that a whole year's crop would not purchase the clothes needed by the people. In the spring, 1682, there was a petition for the assembly to convene and order a cessation of planting, but It adjourned without decisive action. A second assembly was summoned, but rioting began before it could convene. The excitement transform ed the farming population Into a mob moved by a fury for destroying plants. As soon as the growing to Turkish Tobacco Is Grown In Ontario It is reported from the American consulate that a Turkish-born Greek chemist, after four years of experi mentation, has developed a strain of Turkish tobacco that can be success fully grown in Western Ontario. While all previous experiments with growing Turkish tobacco in Canada have failed, it is claimed that the newly developed Turkish type will produce more than a ton of high grade tobacco from less than an acre of land. The priming and curing process differs from that of other Canadian tobaccos in that the leaves are primed according to color and size and strung with needles on" heavy strings. The leaves are air cured first, then placed under glass where the curing procress is com pleted by degrees. The finish prod uct is said to compare favorably with Turkish-grown tobaccos. bacco on one plantation was cut down, the owner was seized by the same frenzy and joined the crowd as it marched on to deatroy the crop of his neighbor. The contagion spread until tobacco amounting to ten thousand hogsheads had been destroyed In Glouchester, where the greatest damage was done, two hun dred plantations were raided. The militia was called out to stop Lowly Peanut Is Now Rated As One Of The Most Important Crops To The War Effort While tobacco continues to hold tint place as the No. 1 cash crop on Martin County (arms, the lowly peanut out ranks it as a crop for the promo tion of the war effort. Only this year, peanut farmers are pro ducing extra thousands of acres of the goobers, and Martin far mers are harvesting several thousand acres in excess of their edible quotas. It's estimated that 12.000 pounds of peanuts are re quired to make enough nitro glycerine to fire one of the guns on the battleship "North Caro ?Una'' one time. At Hut utr llir?; farmers ran hardly grow enough peanuts. But aside frqm the war itself. ' the peanut is an important item in every-day life. It is under stood that around 100 products are derived from the peanut, the riots Several leaders were ar rested, three were hung and the oth ers pardoned Crop curtailment was estimated at ten thousand hogs heads in Virginia. Since eacli hogs head contained over five hundred pounds, the riots took over a half of a million pounds off the market The I (182 crop sold for a very low Professor Carver. Negro scien tist. getting credit for discover ing many of the uses. The leading use for peanuts is in making peanut butter. Per haps salted peanuts come next, and then peanut candy. During the early days of the industry most peanuts were sold for roasting in the shell. Now less than 10 per cent of the com mercial crop reaches the public in that form. In some recent years, hun dreds of millions of pounds of peanuts have been crushed for oil. reaching tin1 public III the form of vegetable shortening, vegetable cooking fats, oleomar garine. and salad oil. Peanut meal, the residue from crushing peanuts for oil, is sold chiefly to manufacturers of stock feeds. Most peanut hulls are used as price, and the people were reduced , to extremities The following year j a prodigious crop was planted The ' riots had nvadt the crop short the j year before .and this one command ed more remunerative returns. In I 1084 the people seemed contented j and peaceful. The insurrectionary 1 impulse had disappeared. fuel in the shelling and crush ing mills. More than one billion pounds of peanuts have been picked and threshed in the United States yearly for the last 7 years. In addition, the peanuts from ov er a million acres have been har vested by hogging-off. Sixty years ago the total crop of the country was less than 40 mil lion pounds. The first 30 years of the pres ent century saw substantial and at times heavy imports of pea nuts, pmiripalli?TTOHI?TfllTLi. Japan and Spain. Chiefly be cause of increased tariff rates, imports have been relatively light during the past 10 years, with the Philippine Islands the chief source until conquered by Japan. sHEDS DEAD CELLS The cornea ot the eye sheets dead eel! but becau ? of the constant pit ... mr of moi. tiuc they do not dry up and become opaque like the cast off cells of the skin, points out the Better Vision Institute. The devital ied cells of the cornea are washed : away hv the tears. I Land Of Cotton \nd Of Livestock Cotton and livestock production in the Cotton Belt are important fact ors in helping to keep supply lines moving efficiently -inft rapidly tn thp.? United States armed forces and war industries. Because of the large proportion of the nation's training camps and schools, airfields and naval stations, and war industries located in the South and Southwest, local produc tion of cottonseed oil food products, milk and butter, beef, pork, lamb, and other foods definitely calls for less transportation than if these products had to be transported from other regions. Without local produc itn.ui, lie in- fin>di' i^nuld huvo b?' shipped in, taxing already burdened transportation facilities. In its home grown cottonseed meal and hulls. grain sorghums, cane, corn. oats. Johnson grass hay, silage and other feed crops, the Cotton Belt has resources for greatly in ; creased production of meat and dairy and poultry products needed in the war effort.. That these feed resources will be used more extensively and more efficiently m the tuture is evi dent from reports throughout the Cotton Belt. Farmers are feeding more livestock, and are producing more pounds of food per animal through more efficient feeding?us ing rations adequately balanced with ample protein and other essential It's Your Duty And Obligation Protect Your Children and Family With LIFE INSURANCE The decision in left with you. Shoulii by any i-liuiii't' your exit from this life come ahont uiiex|iecte<lly, will those absolutely dependent upon you he properly cared for? Will you give them ample protection through life insurance or will you leuve them at the mercy of char ity through your county or stale governments? If they are very lucky the orphanages may he aide to care for them, but all the children of negligent parents cannot be placed in orphanages. LIFE LYNl KANCK costs so lilllc when figures the actual daily i-onl. \ few renin naved each day will give your children the protection lliey need and deserve. Ilousiill IIn willioul obligating yournelf an to the policy you need and the eon! of the annual premium. are always at your nerviee and we represent one of the host eoiupanien in the I nited States. Don't neglect your ehildren's ediieatiou. Iiinuranee purchased now will enable them to f|o through school. PEELE WILLIAMSTON, N. C.
The Enterprise (Williamston, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Aug. 18, 1942, edition 1
9
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