By the latter part of the 17th century, tobacco so 

 glutted the colonial market that the Maryland Assembly 

 required all growers to plant two acres of corn . . . and 

 eventually, the production of Maryland tobacco was 

 temporarily banned in an unsuccessful effort to deflate 

 the market. 



Except for introduction of some new modes of 

 mechanization, the farming methods employed today 

 differ little from those used 300 years ago. 



_L he abundant fields 



Today, tobacco is grown in five Southern Maryland 

 counties; Anne Arundel, Prince George's, Calvert, 

 Charles and St. Mary's. Although 99.75 percent of all 

 Maryland tobacco produced in the United States is 

 grown in these counties, there is a small area of produc- 

 tion on the Montgomery-Frederick County line— just 

 north of Damascus. The Southern Maryland area pro- 

 vides excellent conditions for this special type of to- 

 bacco, common only to the lower Chesapeake. The 

 long growing season and light, sandy soils have pro- 

 duced outstanding tobacco for centuries. 



Government control over tobacco acreage, the allot- 

 ment system, was voted out by Maryland growers in 

 1971. About 85 percent of the growers voted against 

 allotments. The next referendum will not take place 

 until 1974. The last year in which there were tobacco 

 allotments, 1965, showed that 6,500 farms had type 32 

 allotments, but actual tobacco production took place on 

 only 5,000 farms. The Maryland State Department of 

 Agriculture has estimated that there is about an average 



