North Carolina

A

Agriculture

In 2008 there were 52,500 farms in North Carolina. Of those farms, 38 percent had annual sales of more than $10,000. Many of the remainder were sidelines for operators who held other jobs. Farmland occupied 3.5 million hectares (8.6 million acres); crops were grown on 58 percent of the land. The rest was divided between pasture and woodlots.

Chickens and broilers and hogs outranked all other agricultural products as sources of farm income, accounting for three-fifths of total farm sales in 1997 and nine-tenths of all livestock sales. North Carolina ranked first among the states in production of turkeys, second in hogs, and fourth in broilers (young chickens used for meat). During the 1990s huge hog farm operations began to dominate the rural countryside of the inner Coastal Plain.

Tobacco growing was the dominant and best-known agricultural activity in the state for many years. It is still the leading crop, but in 1997 tobacco accounted for only one-seventh of total agricultural sales. Soybeans are the most widely grown crop in North Carolina, accounting for almost one-quarter of the harvested crop acreage, and corn is the second leading crop by acreage planted. Cotton, the state’s leading crop as late as 1952, went through a period of decline, but has become more important since the early 1980s. Greenhouse and nursery items are now the second most valuable crop group in the state’s agricultural economy.

The Atlantic Coastal Plain is North Carolina’s leading agricultural region. It has nearly three-fifths of the state’s cropland. About three-fifths of North Carolina’s tobacco acreage is in the Coastal Plain. In the inner Coastal Plain, where sandy well-drained soil is plentiful, the state’s tobacco crop is most abundant. Over wide areas it is grown on practically every farm. Tobacco acreage is rigidly controlled by a government quota system. Practically all Coastal Plain tobacco is the bright leaf flue-cured kind, which is used almost exclusively for cigarettes.

---

---

Nearly three-fourths of North Carolina’s corn acreage is in the Coastal Plain. Most of the state’s peanuts are raised in the northeastern part of the plain. This peanut-growing region extends into Virginia and is one of the leading peanut areas in the nation. Soybeans, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, and a wide variety of vegetables are much more important in the Coastal Plain than in other regions of North Carolina. Truck farming is significant in the Morehead City and Wilmington areas. Faison, in Duplin County, is one of the largest wholesale produce markets in the nation. The Sandhills is the state’s main peach-producing area.

The Piedmont is less important than the Atlantic Coastal Plain as a farming region. The heavily textured red clays and clay loams are adapted to a variety of grains, hay crops, and pasture, but they are not well suited to high-value cash crops. Soil erosion is a problem, but much of the hillier land that was badly eroded is now used for profitable livestock raising.

The Piedmont grows all the major crops found in the Coastal Plain, except peanuts. Tobacco, largely bright leaf but also some burley, is the leading money crop. The scale of production and acreage quotas are much smaller than in the Coastal Plain, but farming methods are similar. The Piedmont produces most of the state’s cotton crop, mainly in the southern Piedmont.

Corn leads all Piedmont crops in acreage. It is grown on most farms and is used mainly to feed stock. Among small grains, winter wheat is grown largely as a cash crop. The growing of oats is second and barley a distant third. Lespedeza leads all hay crops.

The Piedmont produces many of the state’s cattle, with about equal numbers of beef and dairy animals. High-quality Hereford, Angus, and other beef cattle are raised on many large livestock farms. However, small farms produce most of the beef.

The mountains contain the least important farming region. Most mountain farming is carried on in valleys, coves, and basins. Alluvial soils, covering narrow ribbons of floodplains along swift streams, are very restricted in total area. However, these soils are highly productive when they escape flooding. The largest and best-developed agricultural area of the region is the Asheville Basin. The Waynesville Basin and other smaller basins, coves, and valleys are also important.

As in the Atlantic Coastal Plain and in the Piedmont, tobacco is the leading cash crop of the mountains. Almost all of the tobacco is the air-cured burley kind. The crop is widely grown but on a small scale. In many areas it is the chief source of farm income. Corn is grown on practically all mountain farms. Most of it is fed to cattle and poultry, but the Asheville Basin grows a considerable amount of corn as a cash crop. Several varieties of hay crops are harvested in the region. The Asheville Basin grows vegetables and many flowers, particularly gladiolus. Apples are also widely grown. Orchards usually occupy slopes well above the valley floors. There are also vineyards, the most famous of which are at the Biltmore Estate near Asheville.

In addition to cattle raising, the mountain region produces most of the state’s sheep. Both broilers and laying hens give the mountains a significant poultry industry. Farms in the Asheville Basin produce hatching eggs, which are shipped out by air to markets in other states and overseas.

B

Fishing

North Carolina’s long shoreline is washed by warm Atlantic waters that abound in fish. The area is high in shrimp production, and shrimp boats operate from many fishing ports. The most valuable shellfish catch is blue crabs. Other shellfish harvested include sea and bay scallops and oysters. By far the major part of the catch by weight, however, consists of finfish that are found in great variety. Food fish taken commercially include flounder, Atlantic menhaden (used in industrial processes), sea trout, tuna, grouper, shark, and Atlantic croaker. In 2007 the value of the fish catch was $82.3 million.

C

Forestry

North Carolina is one of the leading states in lumber production. All areas of North Carolina produce lumber. The pine is by far the leading lumber tree. Many medium-sized sawmills and a few large ones operate on a permanent basis, turning out finished lumber for construction and other uses. However, much of the state’s lumber is rough sawn by the hundreds of small portable mills that operate in the midst of the woods. The mills spend only a few weeks in one place. Pine is also the leading wood cut for the state’s paper and pulp industry. Gums, soft maples, poplars, and some oaks are also cut for pulp. Tree growth is rapid in North Carolina’s mild rainy climate. Also, the forest area continues to expand with the abandonment of farmland.

D

Mining

A wide variety of metals and nonmetallic minerals occur in North Carolina, but in most instances they are produced on only a small scale. By value, the leading mineral products in the late 1990s were stone (mostly granite), phosphate rock, and sand and gravel. One of the largest known deposits of phosphate rock in the United States is located in Beaufort County. In the late 1990s the state ranked first in the nation in the production of feldspar, lithium ores, and mica, and third in phosphate rock.

E

Manufacturing

North Carolina is the second largest industrial state in the South, behind only Texas, and one of the more important manufacturing states in the nation. About 856,000 workers were employed in industry in 1996. North Carolina produces more than two-fifths of the nation’s tobacco products and one-quarter of its textile manufactures. The world’s largest furniture mart, at High Point, attracts buyers from all over the United States. These traditional industries of the state have been joined by the manufacturing of chemicals, industrial machinery, and electrical equipment.

Textile manufacturing is the leading source of industrial jobs and wages. The state’s textile industry underwent a contraction in the 1980s, however, because of competition from new plants in foreign countries. From 1980 to 1986 some 43,000 textile manufacturing jobs in North Carolina disappeared. Important textile centers are Burlington, Charlotte, Durham, Gastonia, High Point, Kannapolis, and Winston-Salem.

The decline of the textile industry has lifted the chemical industry to first place in terms of total income generated, but this sector provides far fewer jobs than textile production. Leading employers are firms making pharmaceuticals, organic fibers, cleansers, toilet articles, and plastics and resins.

Industries centered on tobacco rank second behind chemicals in production value. Cigarettes are the main product. Pipe tobacco, cigars, and snuff are also manufactured. The entire tobacco products industry is located in the Piedmont, although most of the bright leaf cigarette tobacco is grown in the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Four regions, Durham, Greensboro, Reidsville, and Winston-Salem, are the centers of production.

Also important for the state are firms making electronic and electrical equipment, such as telephones, electric housewares, and industrial controls. Another large contributor to the state’s economy is the manufacture of industrial machinery, such as computers, power hand tools, machinery for the textile industry, engines, construction equipment, turbines, and pumps.

North Carolina has a large and diversified food processing industry. The biggest source of employment in this sector is the processing of poultry and eggs, much of it done in small factory operations.

Furniture manufacturing once ranked second, behind textile manufacturing, as a source of jobs, but since has declined in relative position. Many leading furniture firms have factories in the state, and they make all grades and kinds of wooden household furniture, as well as a relatively wide variety of office furniture. The furniture plants are widely distributed. Towns with large factories include High Point, Lenoir, Lexington, Hickory, Mount Airy, Statesville, and Thomasville, home of one of the world’s leading chair manufacturers.

Lumber and paper industries have developed as a result of North Carolina’s rich forest resources. Nearly 200 firms making pulp, paper, and paper products operate in the state. Large paper mills in the Coastal Plain are located in Plymouth, Roanoke Rapids, and Reigelwood. In the mountains, at Canton, a large mill makes paper from pines and other softwoods. Another large mill, located at Brevard, makes most of the state’s cigarette paper. There are plywood and veneer mills in the Piedmont.

The red clay soils of the Piedmont region provide an excellent raw material for the manufacture of bricks. Much of the brickmaking industry is located around Sanford.

North Carolina’s progress in manufacturing since the beginning of World War II (1939-1945) has been rapid. Geographically, the expansion has been most marked in the central Piedmont. Raleigh, Durham, Burlington, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, Charlotte, and many smaller manufacturing towns lie in a crescent-shaped region, covering roughly 12 counties in the central Piedmont, and usually called the Piedmont Crescent.

	More from Encarta
	•  Important Notice: MSN Encarta to be discontinued. Learn more. •  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain