EMPLOYEES 



200 300 400 500 



MILLION DOLLARS 



Figure 6. — A, Proportionate number of employees in the manufacturing 

 industries; and B, value of products manufactured in North Carolina 

 1939. 



mont sections, but recently there has been a pronounced 

 trend toward an expansion ot the beef cattle industry in 

 the Coastal Plain. Dairy cattle are raised in every county, 

 chiefly in the piedmont and mountains, but local produc- 

 tion of dairy products is below the State requirements. 

 Hogs are raised tor home use on about two-thirds of the 

 tarms, but commercial production centers in the counties 

 of the western Coastal Plain. Poultry raising is general 

 throughout the State and in 1939 more than $20,000,000 

 worth ot eggs and poultry were produced. 



With nearly one-half of the tarm acreage in woodland, 

 forest products assume considerable importance as a farm 

 crop, but the actual contribution to tarm income has not 

 usually been appreciated, and comprehensive and reliable 

 information on the subject has not been generally available- 

 The Nation-wide questionnaire survey ot farm forest prod- 

 ucts, made by the Forest Service and the Bureau of Agri- 

 cultural Economics in 1937, revealed that the farmers ot 

 North Carolina that year harvested wood products worth 

 $24,000,000, averaging $80 per farm. About two-thirds of 

 this total was accounted for by fuel wood, lumber, posts, 

 and shingles produced and used on the farm, and the re- 

 mainder by sales ot standing timber, sawlogs, fuel wood, 

 pulpwood, lumber, and other forest products, which 



amounted to $8,700,000. North Carolina led all other 

 States in the value ot farm forest products used on tarms 

 and sold from tarms. 



These figures can be compared with the $361,000,000 

 valuation (including nearly $20,000,000 of Government 

 payments) of all crops, livestock, and forest products har- 

 vested from the farms of North Carolina in 1939. Onlv 

 tobacco, dairy products, and corn had a greater value than 

 tarm forest products. The evidence is clear that a wider 

 application of good forestry practices would add even more 

 to the farm income. 



Ma n itfactu ring 



In 1900 the 70,000 people employed in all manufacturing 

 industries in North Carolina received $14,000,000 in wages 

 and produced goods valued at $95,000,000. Since then 

 the State has experienced a great industrial expansion and 

 the 1939 Census of Manufactures reported 3,225 plants 

 employing 270,000 workers (fig. 6, A), who earned 

 $199,000,000 in wages and made products valued at 

 $1,420,000,000 (fig. 6, B). North Carolina led the Southern 

 States and ranked tenth in the Nation in total number 

 of wage earners, twelfth in wages paid, and thirteenth 

 in value added by manufacture. 



In the past few years there has been particularly rapid 

 growth of the hosiery, rayon, and pulp and paper in- 

 dustries. The number ot hosiery mills increased from 

 150 to 257 in the decade, 1931-41, and the number of 

 rayon mills increased from 18 to 72 in the same period. 

 Between 1939 and 1941 new plants or plant extensions 

 costing more than $7,000,000 were erected for a number 

 of pulp, paper, and paperboard mills in the State. 



North Carolina leads the Nation in the manufacture 

 ot tobacco products. Factories at Winston-Salem, 

 Durham, and Reidsville, all in the piedmont, manufacture 

 more than 50 percent ot all American cigarettes, 35 percent 

 ot the smoking tobacco, and 50 percent ot the Nation's 

 plug tobacco. 



Its textile industry also ranks first in the Union. In 

 1939 over 700 plants, most ot them located in the piedmont, 

 were making textiles, chiefly cotton yarn and woven goods, 

 cotton knit goods, hosiery, and rayon. The towel mills 

 of Kannapolis, the denim mills at Greensboro, and the 

 damask mills at Rosemary are among the world's largest. 

 In 1939 the textile mills of North Carolina contained 

 nearly one-fourth of the active cotton spindles in the 

 United States and accounted for 26 percent ot the national 

 consumption of cotton. The cotton farms ot the State 

 produced only one-fitth ot the quantity consumed by 

 local mills. 



The primary wood-products industries will be discussed 

 in detail later in this report. Of the secondary industries. 



