Tobacco Farming in Transylvania County

According to “North Carolina Atlas” by Jule B. Warren and L. Pole Denmark published in 1952 “North Carolina ranked fourth in the nation in the value of farm crops, not including livestock.”  The leading product by far was tobacco, which had been cultivated in the state since colonial times. 

Different varieties of tobacco grow best in different climates and soils.  They are also cured in different ways.  North Carolina was the leading producer of flue-cured bright leaf tobacco, most of which was grown in the eastern and northcentral part of the state.  Burley tobacco, which is air-cured was grown in the mountain counties of Western North Carolina. 

While the burley variety accounted for a very small proportion of the total tobacco crop grown, it did bring a higher price.  Burley was valued as a flavoring ingredient in tobacco products, especially cigarettes.

North Carolina’s burley tobacco production amounted to only about three percent of the national total in the early 1970s.

Locally, County Agent R.E. Lawrence began promoting tobacco as a money crop around 1920.  S.E. Verner planted an acre of tobacco as a demonstration in 1925.  By the early 1930s there were several farmers in the Little River area raising burley tobacco.  Although it could be grown in heavy red clay soils, the bottom lands in the river valley provided good fields for the crop.

A group of Little River farmers listen to a discussion
on tobacco, 1957.

Little River community scrapbooks from the 1950s through the 1970s provide information and photographs related to tobacco farming. The community regularly held demonstrations and planted test plots to learn about tobacco varieties; control of weeds, insects and diseases; and to provide other educational opportunities for farmers. 

Tobacco hanging in Martin Shipman's drying barn, 1960.

In 1952 Martin Shipman, Lynch Moore, E.W. Medford and H.M. Merrill attended a field day in Waynesville where they saw a gas burner used for curing burley.  Shipman purchased nine burner units to install in his 1,200 square foot barn with controlled ventilation.  It was the first of the improved type of tobacco barn in Western North Carolina. 

Transylvania County farmers never produced large quantities of tobacco.  Under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 a quota was established setting the number of acres of tobacco that could be planted in each county.  Transylvania County’s quota was around 33 acres throughout the mid-to-late 20^th century.  When the quota system was eliminated in 2004 through the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act it was no longer profitable for small farms to raise tobacco and ended tobacco production throughout the mountain region.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. For more information, comments, or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.