North Carolina Tobacco Crop in 1901

 North Carolina Tobacco Crop Twenty-Five Percent Short: 1901

There is an eleven percent decrease in the acreage, but this is offset by better prices. Prices are higher than last year [1900]. Investigation shows that tobacco culture is more profitable than a year ago, but not so profitable as ten years ago.

A careful analysis of the conditions, size, and value of the crop with comparative statistics made by tobacco authorities both in and out the state [North Carolina].

The culture of tobacco has long been a leading staple in North Carolina. When the farmers in Caswell, Granville, Person, and surrounding counties began to get rich making bright tobacco, it was supposed that the bright tobacco would create perpetual wealth. Now the territory of the belt for growing bright tobacco has widened to keep pace with the increased demand for the manufactured tobacco made of the yellow leaf.

The price of leaf tobacco has been higher this season than for several previous years, though the crop has been short. Why is the price higher? How large is the crop? What was the acreage? Is it a profitable crop? These are important questions, not only to the growers of tobacco, but to all the people of North Carolina, for, next to the cotton crop, it is the largest money crop grown in North Carolina.

In answer to a series of questions printed below, sent to tobacco farmers, tobacco dealers, proprietors of tobacco warehouses, tobacco manufacturers and others enjoying special advantages to know about the crop, we print below a mass of valuable information.

Based upon this information the News and Observer is justified in saying:

1. The tobacco crop in North Carolina is less than a 75 percent crop.

2. The acreage is 89 percent of last year's [1900] acreage.

3. The tobacco is light as compared with last year's crop.

4. The average number of pounds grown per acre this year has been 549 pounds.

5. The prices are 61 percent higher than last year.

6. The amount of tobacco sold had fallen off in all the markets.

7. Tobacco culture is not so profitable as ten years ago. Tobacco manufacturing is carried on by fewer manufacturers than ten years ago, the tobacco trust having absorbed a number of the largest independent plants. Individuals are slow to enter into competition with the trust.

8. Tobacco culture is clearly more profitable than one year ago. The manufacturers of tobacco are increasing their business and are finding it pays better.

To obtain the information necessary to completely review the conditions of the tobacco crop in the State the following letter was sent out:

November 26, 1901

Dear Sir: Please do us the kindness to answer the questions below and return to us not later than Thursday or Friday of next week, and oblige.

Yours truly,

Josephus Daniels,

Editor News and Observer [Raleigh, NC]

The Questions Asked

1. What is the acreage in tobacco in your section as compared with last year?

2. What is the character of tobacco grown in your section?

3. What amount per acre grown this year?

4. How does this compare with last year's crop in percentage?

5. How are prices this season as compared with last?

6. (a) How many pounds will be sold in your market the present season? (b) How much in 1900? (c) 1899? (d) 1898?

7. Is tobacco culture and tobacco manufacturing more or less profitable than 10 years ago?

8. Is it more profitable than one year ago?

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Here are the answers for Caswell County, with R. L. Walker submitting the report.

1. About two-thirds in this immediate section. The crop for Caswell County is put at from one-half to three-quarters as compared with 1900.

2. Brights, wrappers and smokers.

3. Three hundred to five hundred lbs.

4. About one-half or 50 percent in weight.

5. Twenty-five percent higher this year.

6. (a) 1,600,000. (b) 1,500,000. (c) 2,000,000. (d) 2,000,000.

7. Less so from the fact that hail storms are more common and the flea bug sucks the late tobacco until it has no weight.

8. Only with a few farmers that planted very early and made good crops. The crops of tobacco in Caswell County as a whole will not bring as many dollars as the 1900 crop did.

The foregoing from the News and Observer (Raleigh, NC) as republished in The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, NC), 17 December 1901.

Counties Responding: Alamance, Beaufort, Buncombe, Caswell, Chatham, Cumberland, Durham, Duplin, Edgecombe, Forsyth, Franklin, Granville, Greene, Guilford, Halifax, Haywood, Iredell, Jackson, Johnston, Lenoir, Macon, Martin, Nash, Orange, Person, Rockingham, Sampson, Stokes, Vance, Wake, Warren, Wayne, and Wilson.

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The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, NC), 17 December 1901

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