| Summary |
Pitt County, North Carolina, is an area where flue-cured tobacco is the primary cash crop in a diversified agricultural economy. More tobacco is produced in the County than anywhere else in the New Bright Belt of North Carolina. The crop accounts for over one-half of agricultural income in the County and is responsible for Pitt's ranking as first or second among North Carolina counties in income from principal crops. Tobacco is foremost among the crops grown, A variety of other crops supplement tobacco and are related to it in the overall scheme of production, A tobacco-com-soybean combination occupies roughly 87 percent of the harvested cropland. Corn and soybeans occupy four times as much land as tobacco but they are subordinate crops. They function as filler crops which utilize the remaining arable land on the farms of the County, but they do not interfere with tobacco production. Techniques of tobacco production include precise steps from preparing seed beds, to harvesting and curing, to carrying the crop to market. Some stage of tobacco production requires time and effort during essentially every month of the year. Production of tobacco requires the use of specially designed structures. Tobacco is tied on sticks and prepared for curing under looping shelters, cured in distinctive barns, and stored, graded, and tied again in packhouses. Other than dwellings and general outbuildings, tobacco related structures are the most numerous and predominant structures on the rural landscape of Pitt County. Distinctive crop combinations and groups of farm buildings are consequences of most agricultural activities in the County revolving around tobacco. Both the organization and appearance of the rural landscape can be understood only by relating them to flue-cured tobacco production. |
