B 



and destroying crops, occasionally inflicting beatings 

 in an effort to discourage independent growers over a 

 12,000-square mile area of the Black Patch. 



Relief came by 1909, when the U.S. Supreme Court 

 broke up the so-called tobacco buying "trust," and 

 Congress repealed the leaf tax. By 1915, its usefulness 

 gone, the Association was dissolved. 



urley boom 



Meanwhile, the expanding Burley crops brought im- 

 proving prices, reaching 40 cents a pound by 1916. 

 In 1921, the East Tennessee Tobacco Association and 

 the state department of agriculture launched a cam- 

 paign which led to Burley planting in more than 20 

 counties. They produced a total crop of more than 18 

 million pounds. A market was opened in Knoxville 

 around 1923 and Burley planting spread throughout the 

 middle part of the state. The tobacco economy was 

 hurt, but only temporarily, by the post-World War I 

 deflation— with overproduction came bad prices. 



Throughout the 1900's, tobacco production in Ten- 

 nessee has steadily increased. Although the total acre- 

 age liarvested has been a good deal more in the past 

 than now, technology and science have afforded the 

 tobacco farmer an opportunity to produce a lot more 

 tobacco per acre than in the past. 



In 1920, for example, the average yield of tobacco 

 per acre in Tennessee was 760 pounds. In the latest 

 year of record, 1971, Tennessee tobacco farmers pro- 

 duced an average of 2,040 pounds per acre. 



Tobacco production has come a long way in Ten- 

 nessee since the pioneer days. Tobacco farming is big 



35 



