An economic study of fire cured tobacco farming in Appomattox County, Virginia in 1936

Abstract

In September, 1933, the Soil Conservation Service established a demonstration area in the Wreck Island Creek Watershed of Appomattox County, Virginia. In order to secure information as to the farm practices followed in the area, the Soil Conservation Service and the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station conducted a farm management survey of the area during the summer of 1936, covering the 1935 farm business. This survey was repeated in the summer of 1937, covering the 1936 farm business. The records of the 1936 farm business are the basis of this study.

The data were secured by the survey method, by trained enumerators. A total of 135 records were taken, of which 2 were discarded because they were too small to be classed as farms, and 25 were omitted because 50 percent or more of the total business receipts were obtained from non-farm sources. The remaining 110 form the basis for this study.

The purposes of this study were to show conditions in the area for the year 1936, determine and measure the importance of factors affecting income, and to make comparisons, where possible, with the results of the 1935 study.