GeographyIQ - World Atlas - Home Page. Reference.com - A Free Online Encyclopedia & Information Reference. Welcome to the Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Wikibooks. Agriculture in North Carolina during the Great Depression. Originally published as "Difficult Days on Tar Heel Farms" by RoAnn Bishop Reprinted with permission from the Tar Heel Junior Historian. Fall 2010.Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, NC Museum of History “Well somebody told us Wall Street fell But we were so poor that we couldn’t tell.
Cotton was short and the weeds were tall But Mr. Roosevelt’s a gonna save us all.” —from “Song of the South,” written by Bob McDill about the Great Depression era and recorded in 1989 by the band Alabama Group in tobacco field, no date (c.1920's-'30's). The biggest problems for North Carolina farmers resulted from growing too much cotton and tobacco, the state’s two main cash crops. To add to farmers’ woes, constant cultivation of cotton and tobacco had damaged soil, robbing it of nutrients needed for crops to grow well.
Another problem facing Tar Heel farmers was the downside of farm mechanization, or replacing human and animal labor with machines. When Governor J. Timeanddate.com. Library of Congress Electronic Reference Desk Resources. Free Online Encyclopedias and Reference.