fan is
universal habit today indulged
in toy the peoples of the world.
■Ihia year this strange and
exotic wOed again proved to
many thousands of “tobacco ex
perts” here in Eastern Carolina
that it is not only peculiar but
16 one plant that dares the “ex
pert” to predict its ability to
• fool everyone.
Dry weather had frightened
several yeartf growth and had
cultivated a huge crop of ulcers
among these who labor with,
finance and drake plans on the
outcome of the tobacco crop.
The crop in many parts of
this, the world’s greatest tobacco
growing area was folding up and
dying—or so' it appeared.
north Carolina Commissioner
o* dgrtctoltittre L. Y. "Stgg" fcat
lentine, a dairyman who should
. have stuck with his cows, came
5 Opt with a huge and calamitourf
prediction that the crop wae
- hurt to the tune of a hundred
million dollars and then a few
weeks later after riding around
and observing the sorry condl
little prayer from time to time
during the time that hir*is mort-;
,gaged—-foody and soul to this
pixillant W6«l. ■
Whe*i thi ball la tossed to him
-when title weed is golden ripe
len it becomes his nasty, hot
id tired lot to pluck the leases,
til the moisture content has
been reduced to the profitable
minimum and, title leaves have
reached that highest level Of
marketing desirability.
Promt the curing ham to the
paokhousewhere more care must
be exercised in selecting the
leaves of one color and bundling
them together so that the dif
ferent “grades” will command
the eye khd demand the price
being paid for that peculiar and
particular type when the auc
tioneer leads the buyers past.
tfhe* end of the double-play,
rich, rewarding and exciting
comes when the “ball" finally
tends in hand; of the nicotine
slave who plucks Its Iropi its
that develops the fumes which,
if butfora moment, affords the
relaxing and exhifirating effedts
of “a smoke."
Whether the jeweled paw of
milady, the pale mitt of an ad
olescent who is sneaking a few
puffs between high school class
es , the grimy hand of the labor
er or the palsied hand of the
aged; the story is the same and
it Js\a profitable storp. ;
Prom the backwoods and the
rolling hills, from the swamp
land borders, from near and from
far, the hordes come to listen
and hum a little as the auction
eers trembles his tonsils and as
saults t^ie air with his pungent
mice pleadings. Some In a bat
tered truck or
town to bear the chant, to smell
the rich smells, to taste the
town-tastes; to walk the hard
streets, to elbow through the
sweating crowds and to; take
home a little of the excitement
and money so widely diisributed
on this day of days.
The Cadillsc-farmer with his
richly tossed sons and daught
ers walk down the aisles of Gold
en Weed and try to act as if this
is something for “poor folks’* to
worry, about.
But bOpeath their $100 frocks
and undCjr their painted hides
they too can feel the pulse of
profit and the enchantment of
this, the Day of Pays.
_its 58th consecutive year of
sates service to the thousands, of
farmers from every direction who
through the years have built it
into the world’s second largest
.tobacco market. The story of
this market, the crop it handles
and the many satellite busines
ses built around It is, to a large
degree, the major history of
Kinston and Jjenoir County.
Although it is recorded that
Kinston had a “tobacco ware
house” as early as 1170, It Is
mot likely that this was a sales
floor In the modem sense but
was more probably a storage fa
cility for the plantation owners
who shipped their crop down the
Neuae to New Bern.
«.?*•
iH
we»t' into the producing part of
the state and brought back a
young man named Luther Tapp
to manage this first sales floor.
By 1895 B. W. Canady had built
another warehouse on the next
block south of the Grainger
floor and soon a third was to be
constructed under the name Cfcnr
tral Warehouse, at the sarnie site
still occupied by. today’s modern
Central warehouse. Canady cal
led his house the Atlantic, since,
as he put It, it was the ware
house nearest the Atlantic
Ocean. Grainger’s house was
known as the Kinston-Carolina.
With the arrival of Tapp
and many other Piedmont Coun
trymen In (he community Kins
ton rapidly began to make a rep
utation for Itself hi the tobacco
sales im>rld and today it contin
ues Its upward march with only
the Wilson market remaining a
headr of it in total pounds sold
and in money paid out and It
Is admittedly likely that Wilson’s
sales and cash outlay will ulti
mately be passed by the Kinston
market. This assumption is based
upon the fact that the Kinston
sales area includes more acres
of tobaccO than any other single
market Jh the world.
Refusal of major tobacco buy-,
companies to furnish the
/Kinston market with towers on
m equal ratio with WUson has
average and Its u.
‘was Jjzst33 cents higher to the
hundred pounds, which wouldn’t
be enough to pay a farmer for,
.hauling his tobacco to that mar
ket if he lived In the Kinston
trading area.
During the ’51 sales season the
Kinston market showed a gain of
Just under 15 million pounds over
the ’50 selling season, while
Gteenvllle only registered a 12
million pound gain, Wilson only
an eight milion gain and Rocky
Mount only a seven million, pound
gain.
Since the-beginning of system
atic record idefring on tile sale
of tobacco there has-been a wide
fluctuation to the average price
paid the farmer for this back
breaking crop. In 1919, when rec
ords begin, the flue cured crop
sold for ajn average of $49.30. per
hundred pounds. That year the
flue-cured acreage was 521,500
and the yield per acre was set
at 612 pounds.
From 1919 until 1931 the price
of tobacco continued to march
ever downward' until It hit what
everyone hopes to be the all
time low of $8.80 per hundred;
pounds. That year the flue
cured acreage was set at 688,550
and the average yield was fixed
at 692 pounds per acre.
After hitting that sub-base
ment price level to 1931 the price
• In 1943 for tihe flnst time since
the post-World War I boom the
price of the weed passed to $40
average and since 1943 it has
never dropped below that level.
The 1951 crop of 735,000 acres
that averaged 1,303 puonds to
the acre and averaged $53.75 per
hundred pounds grossed more
money than any crop in the his
tory of tobacco growing, when
the growers received $532,952,000
—well over a half-billion dollars.
Kinston, located as ft is, on
the northern edge of a great to
bacco growing area that has no
principal market of its own can
look toward even greater suc
cess In the future. Lenoir County
has this year 21,946.9 acres of
tobacco, Jones County has 8,544
acres* Craven has 13,428.9 acres,
Oaretert has 2,107.4 acres, Onslow
has 9,839.5 acres, Duplin has
24,220.2 acres and Kinston is
nearer to more of this whopping
80,000 acres than any other mar
ket—which is more acreage than
lies within the sales area of any
other market. This does not in
clude one acre of the Greene,
‘ and Pitt County crops
•ly sold on the
,——„, some of which
lies closer to other major mar
kets than to Kinston. Promin
ent citizens of both Greene and .
Pitt counties have holdings In
»and thus are
many tntiu«n
froih these