The War between the States stimulated the production of
foodstuffs, but from 1865 to 1900 the North Carolina farmer became steadily
poorer. Cotton dropped from a dollar a pound in 1865 to 25 cents a pound in
1868. In the next three decades it dropped 12 cents, to 7 cents, and finally,
in 1894, it fell below 5 cents a pound.
The farmer, buying at high prices and selling near the level
of production, was forced to run on a credit basis. The merchant financed the
farmer, taking a lien on the crops. In return for the risk he took, the
merchant demanded a price that averaged higher than the cash price, so that the
farmer paid as much as 40 percent annual interest and sometimes more. The
farmer was consequently driven to plant money crops—cotton and tobacco—at the
expense of food crops. He was in the hopeless position of trying to pay for his
food and his food supplies out of the proceeds of his money crop.
The rise of farm tenancy, more than any other factor, forced
single-crop farming in North Carolina. The War between the States had broken
the existing plantations into small farms, and changed the relationship between
landowners and laborers. Landowners, deprived of slave labor, had either to
rent their land for cash, pay wages, or let the land to tenants on shares.
Since both the landowners and the landless Negroes and
whites who furnished the labor had practically no money, sharecropping was the
logical development. Under this system the landowner furnished the tenant with
team, implements, and seed, and received from the tenant one-half to two-thirds
of the staple crops after harvest. He also advanced provisions for the tenant
family, and received payment in either cash o crops.
There was opposition to sharecropping at the outset. The Reconstructed Farmer, edited at
Tarboro, believed that:
What
demoralizes the labor of our country more than anything else is farming on
shares…. The manner in which share
laborers are managed is a curse to the country, for in many instances they are
put off on land . . . that will not support them the first year, no matter how
good the cultivation of the crop may be . . . .
North Carolina farmers were moved by the same desperation
that was driving farmers all over the country to organize. Already the Farmers’
Alliance Cooperative Union had swept the Southwest. In North Carolina the
Grange had appeared in 1873, attained a membership of about 10,000 in 1875, and
then declined.
In 1887 the Farmers’ Alliance was organized in the state
under the leadership of Leonidas Polk. A practical farmer himself, Polk had
begun publication of the Progressive
Farmer at Winston in 1866, and had moved the weekly to Raleigh when he
became State Commissioner of Agriculture. The Alliance spread until in 1890
local chapters had been formed in every county but one, and the total
membership was more than 90,000.
The Alliance drew the farmers together for education and
entertainment. There were discussions of agricultural problems, institutes to
spread the knowledge of scientific farming, agricultural clubs, and fairs. The
farmers actively supported the reorganization of the State Department of
Agriculture, the establishment at Raleigh of the North Carolina College of
Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and of the State Normal and Industrial College
for Women at Greensboro.
Through a state agency set up by the Alliance, farmers were
able to purchase directly from the manufacturer implements, fertilizers, and
even food supplies at a saving of from 10 to 60 percent. The small capital,
which was raised by selling shares to farmers, made long-time credit
impossible, and most of the farmers were tied fast by the crop-lien system and
could not take advantage of the saving offered them. Merchants fought the
inexperienced cooperatives, until the panic of 1893 finally put an end to them.
As conditions grew steadily worse, the farmers organized as
the Populist Party. Joining with the Republicans, this party succeeded in
bringing about the election of a Fusionist ticket in 1896.
Since 1900 the number of farms in the state has continued to
increase, partly as a result of the great improvement in roads, partly because
much potential farm land remained unused. One million six hundred thousand
people live on North Carolina farms, the second largest farm population of the
48 states. In 1930 there were almost twice as many persons classified as
farmers as there were persons classified as urban dwellers, and of the total
population 50.5 percent lived on farms. Though the average size of farms is
small, the average cash return per farm in 1930 was high—almost a thousand
dollars. In the value of farm products the state in 1937 ranked second to Texas
among the Southern states, and fifth in the United States.
Agriculture is not limited to any particular section,
although the central and southeastern portions, comprising some 22,000 square
miles, are particularly favored and contain some of the richest farm land in
eastern America.
In the southern part of the coastal plain, diversified
farming is increasing. Remarkable success has been achieved by individuals and
groups through intensive truck farming and flower growing. Of increasing
importance is the strawberry crop, valued at approximately $2 million a year.
Large productive farms in the region ship quantities of early truck to outside
markets and also produce cotton, corn, tobacco, soybeans, and sweet and Irish
potatoes.
Tobacco, cotton, and corn are the chief crops of the state,
and tobacco now brings to North Carolina farmers a greater revenue than any
other crop. Tobacco is raised in the central Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, along
the South Carolina border, and in the mountains, where burley is the variety
produced. In 1937 the crop was valued at more than $141 million. In 1919, with
cotton at 35 cents a pound, the total crop of the state was valued at $130
million; in 1935, the low price of 11.5 cents per pound, the total crop value
was approximately $41 million.
The Sandhill section produces millions of bushels of peaches
for northern and eastern markets. Dewberries, grown in great quantities in this
section, are noted for their size and flavor.
Farming is more diversified in the Piedmont, where a large
urban population in the industrial centers provides a good market. The chief
products are grain, fruits, vegetables, tobacco, and cotton. The Piedmont has a
high percentage of farm owners and a more balanced farm program, but it, like
the Coastal Plain, suffers from a deficiency in livestock and dairy products.
The Mountain Region is an area of diversified farming on a
domestic scale. With the exception of potatoes, cabbage, and tobacco, products
grown for sale represent only a small part of the total agricultural produce.
Tobacco is the only money crop of any importance. Other crops are corn, wheat,
a little buckwheat, oats, rye, sorghum, late varieties of Irish potatoes, and
hay. Beef cattle and sheep are raised in considerable numbers, and the region
is particularly adapted to poultry raising and dairying. Cheese making is an
important industry in the northwestern counties. Fertile valleys, especially
those in the thermal belt, are particularly suited to fruit growing and truck
farming.
Many farm families in the Mountain Region derive an income
from the cultivation and gathering of drug plants, especially ginseng and
golden seal. There is some income from the sale of ornamental leaves and
shrubbery, and a trend toward the cultivation of mountain shrubbery for
commercial purposes.
Corn, one of the great crops of North Carolina before the
coming of the white man, is produced in every county. In 1935 the value of the
crop to the state was a little more than $32 million.
Although North Carolina is still deficient in livestock, in
1935 there were 684,266 head of cattle, an increase of nearly 30 percent over
the previous five years. In the same year, 2.5 million pounds of dairy butter,
26 million pounds of farm butter, and 30 million gallons of fluid milk were
produced. There were 362,104 horses and mules, 947,143 swine, 8,806,000
chickens, and 90,708 turkeys on North Carolina farms.
Between 1932 and 1935 the gross income of North Carolina
farmers rose to slightly over $300 million, more than doubling in three years.
These figures indicate, among other things, the increasing interest the farmers
are taking in a balanced farm program and the conservation of soil.
One of the most serious economic and social problems with
which North Carolina has to deal is farm tenancy. Almost half the farms in the
state are operated by tenants who have little chance for farm ownership. Most
of these tenants live on the Coastal Plain, where the large cotton and tobacco
crops are produced. They frequently move from farm to farm, and are drawn to
the factories by the promise of ready money.
Extensive programs in reclamation, conservation, and
rehabilitation are being carried on in North Carolina by State and Federal
agencies. Experimental farms and nurseries are conducted by the State in the
Coastal, Piedmont, and Mountain sections and many of the counties maintain farm
agents and home demonstration agents. The State College Extension Service is
conducting a program to encourage balanced farming, increased livestock
production, and more scientific utilization of the land. The first 4-H club was
organized in 1909 in Hertford County. There are now (1939) 1,500 such clubs in
the state with a total membership of 43,000.
The Farm Security Administration of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture has organized subsistence homestead projects at Scuppernong Farms,
on the border of Lake Phelps in Tyrrell and Washington Counties, and at
Penderlea, in Pender County. Projects for demonstration in soil conservation,
especially erosion control, were established in numerous sections of the state
by Federal Government agencies during the 1930s.
