"Carolina Farm Comment" by F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, as published in the Wilmington Star in 1945
On the highway map of North Carolina, Walstonburg seems to be located on Route 264 just east of Saratoga in Wilson County and a short distance west from Farmville in Pitt County. Actually, it is about a mile from that highway, down a lovely paved road in the northern part of Greene. I drove there one afternoon last week to have a part in the commencement exercise of the Walstonburg High School. It is an interesting trip to make, carrying one as it does through a portion of the best tobacco-growing country in the world.
The crop in central North Carolina is, of course, not so far advanced as further east in Wilson and Greene counties, but, generally where not damaged by hail, tobacco is growing off in almost perfect stand and is being cultivated rapidly to keep it moving.
Again, as in other parts of the tobacco territory, little cotton is to be seen. Much of the land has been put to corn, however, and more soybeans than usual seem to have been planted. There are gardens everywhere and most of them have a variety of crops with several kinds of vegetables now ready for the table.
At Walstonburg, B.L. Davis, the efficient and popular principal of the school, met me at the teacherage and we had time for only a brief peep at the fine school building and its well-kept grounds before he announced that we had been invited for supper at the home of Mr. and Mrs. H.T. Herring, about three miles out in the country. And this really was a pleasure. The Herrings live on a modern and well-equipped farm with about 500 acres of cleared land and a tobacco allotment of about 70 acres.
There are 13 tenant families on the Herring place, and each of them shares in the total tobacco allotment. The size of the families is not as large as it was before the war, but the farm work moves along fairly well. Mr. Herring said he could not plant much cotton this year. Pointing to a fine field of rye near his home, he said, "I would have plowed that rye under several weeks ago and planted the land to cotton if I had plenty of lab or, but, as it is, I had to let the rye go to seed and will harvest it with the combine. I simply cannot afford to plant cotton when I have no one to gather it."
The Herring home is a fine example of old rural architecture. Like many other farm homes in North Carolina today, it is equipped with all modern conveniences, including running water and electrical equipment of all kinds. The high ceiling rooms and the solid old furniture give the place an appearance of permanence and stability. At the risk of making someone hungry, I must tell you about that evening meal. It was beautifully served and there was fried chicken, brown and tasty, thick slices of home-cured ham, lima beans, hot biscuits, candied yams, creamed potatoes, watermelon rind pickles, tender corn, chicken gravy, and finally large slices of homemade pie covered over with delicious ice cream from Mrs. Herring's own refrigerator. I know that I have left out some of the items and I trust Mrs. Herring will forgive me if I do, but I want to say that it was the sort of meal that only those who live on the farm can have in these days of food rationing and meat shortages.
At the high school that evening, it was a pleasure to see the 26 clean-cut, fine young American boys and girls who received their certificates as graduates of the class of 1945. Carl T. Hicks, chairman of the local school board and a prominent official of the Farm Bureau, paid the students a high compliment when he said that their actions as young people had made a reputation for the entire Walstonburg community. Their pride in their school building and the care they had taken to see that none of the public property was defaced or destroyed was commented upon beyond the community, he said.
The program of the evening lasted for over two hours but such was the interest of the people in their home affairs that few left the auditorium despite the warm weather. It was a wonderful demonstration of an unusual community interest. Mr. Davis said the school grounds were being landscaped according to a plan prepared by John Harris, extension landscape specialist at State College, and that the plan was being brought to completion year by year with new seedings and further plantings of shrubbery.
Carl T. Hicks is an authority on tobacco. In his opinion the region of northern Greene, western Pitt, and eastern Wilson counties has never had better prospects for its tobacco crop. The stands are almost perfect, and this means that plants are growing off uniformly and should, thus, produce a cured product that will mature in the same manner, leaf of unusually high quality.
He made the interesting observation also that the tobacco allotment on the farm in that section determines the price of that farm. For instance, if a farm of 50 acres in the heart of a good producing section has an allotment of 20 acres of tobacco, then that farm is worth $20,000. The tobacco allotment is worth just about $1,000 an acre if the place, otherwise, is in such condition that the crop can be grown and handled efficiently.
A farm of 500 acres with a tobacco allotment of 20 acres also is worth $20,000. Apparently the size of the farm has little to do with the price. It's the allotment of tobacco allocated t the farm by the Triple-A Committee that determines its present value. Mr. Herring has an allotment of 70 acres of tobacco, which means that his place has a price on the market for $70,000, but Mr. Herring also has good barns, a lovely rural home, painted and well-kept outhouses, substantial and painted tenant homes, and ample woodlands from which he can secure fuel wood for curing his tobacco crop. He, definitely, is not interested in any such price.
"But even were I to sell a small corner of my farm--some land that I do not need," he said, "I would have to share a part of my tobacco allotment with whomever bought that corner. This is one of the regulations of our county AAA committee and no farmer can sell even a small part of his place without sharing some of his allotment. If he does not share it, the committee will do it for him."
