What Is Meant By 'Old Belt' Grown Tobacco?

[mawnansmiff]

I have come across the term 'old belt' many times, particularly when reading reviews but nowhere have I seen it explained. Here is a typical example heading reviews on the (excellent) Solani 633 Virginia Flake With Perique...
"Specially selected red Virginias from the Old belt and ripe, bright Virginias, sweetened with Louisiana Perique build up this masterpiece of tobacco blending."
I wonder if it refers to the districts which the first Virginia plantations were located.
Any pointers anyone?
Regards,
Jay.

 

[jeepnewbie]

Wonder if it's anything like the reference to the Bible Belt. Being grown in a certain area with other farmers due to the rich soil.

 

[pitchfork]

The Old Belt is a section of the foothills of NC and VA. The soil is rich and red in color -- I've always wondered if that didn't give a slightly reddish tint to the tobacco. The Eastern Belt, as you might expect, is east of there. It's very flat and has sandy soil as it used to be under the ocean. (Sometimes it's called the New Belt.)
I grew up in the Old Belt and my mom remembers working in the tobacco fields on her grandfather's farm back in the 1950s.

 

[pitchfork]

Jay, here's a map. Instead of "Eastern Belt," it has it broken up into New Belt and Border Belt, but the Old Belt and Middle Belt designations here match with maps I've seen elsewhere, so you can at least see what part of NC they're talking about.

 

[pitchfork]

The gray section here shows how the Old Belt also reaches up into the Virginia piedmont.

 

[mawnansmiff]

WOW, many thanks Pitchfork for going to such trouble. It never occurred to me that there were other 'belts', I believe I have only encountered 'old belt'.
Your first map, what scale is it. I'm afraid the geography of the States is something I know little of.
I see me spending a few hours researching this further on good old Google ::
Regards,
Jay.

 

[pitchfork]

Jay, I don't know the scale of the map, but North Carolina is almost exactly the same size/land area as England.

 

[pagan]

The state of North Carolina is 48,711 sq Miles, now you will have to convert that to Kilometers
this link will assist you

http://state.1keydata.com/states-by-size.php

 

[bigpond]

Great posts!
Here's an interesting history:
"Tobacco belts are areas that traditionally have a large number of tobacco warehouses or markets. The largest tobacco belt in North Carolina is the Eastern Belt. It consists of approximately 65 tobacco warehouses, situated in 18 market towns beginning on the north side of the South River and extending northward to Ahoskie. By the late nineteenth century, tobacco production had begun spreading out of the Piedmont region of the state and into many eastern counties. Among the primary reasons for this movement were the diseases and soil depletion experienced in the Piedmont, the adventurous nature of some farmers, and the need for economic expansion. Farmers found it expedient to create markets for their tobacco near to the site of production, and soon the tobacco marketing industry had organized itself in the form of the Eastern Belt, though that term itself was not yet in use.
North Carolina's Border Belt lies along both sides of the North Carolina and South Carolina line, spreading north to the South River in North Carolina. There are approximately 49 warehouses situated in 15 market towns in the Border Belt. North Carolina Border Belt market towns include Chadbourn, Fair Bluff, Fairmont, Lumberton, Whiteville, Clarkton, and Tabor City; South Carolina market towns include Loris, Darlington-Timmonsville, Conway, Florence, and Mullins.
The Old and Middle Belt denotes a tobacco belt that has some of the oldest tobacco market towns in North Carolina. The term "middle" refers to its geographical location in the state. Historically, tobacco production moved westward across Virginia, from Jamestown into Lynchburg, down to Danville, then east and westward along the Virginia-North Carolina border. The modern-day Old and Middle Belt in North Carolina has dozens of tobacco warehouses situated in nine market towns. These towns range from Louisburg in the east to Mount Airy in the west.
The growing, harvesting, and marketing season of North Carolina's Border Belt is usually about one week behind that of the Eastern Belt and two weeks behind the Old and Middle Belt."
from here:

http://ncpedia.org/tobacco-belts

 

[mawnansmiff]

Bigpond, thanks ever so for the info and link. I'm now settled down with a fresh bowl of Westmorland Slices for a few hours of reading ::
Regards,
Jay.

 

[jeepnewbie]

Wow that is a lot of great information. I'm glad some asked and others had an answer.
To ask another on this subject did they rotate fields? I remember something when I was in school they told us the fields were rotated, something about tobacco would eat up all the nutrients and the fields would be worn out if over used.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Tobacco plants do deplete the soil over time. And Nightshade plants often need to be planted in soil that hasn't supported several year's crops. At least the former is true for tomatoes, and probably is true for their cousins the tobacco.

 

[hmhaines]

Love learning this stuff, thanks!

 

[mawnansmiff]

"I remember something when I was in school they told us the fields were rotated, something about tobacco would eat up all the nutrients and the fields would be worn out if over used."
Thanks to the above posted link (and other places that it led me to) that very question was answered of sorts. Apparently tobacco doesn't necessarily need the soil to be super fertile but of course growing it year after year on the same plot would eventually reduce the yield and increase the likelihood of disease. Afore anyone thought of using farmyard manure to revitalise said plot the farmers simply cleared fresh areas of brush etc and started over again. Bear in mind this was in the early days of tobacco production where pretty much all farmers had a field or two for growing tobacco alongside the more regular food crops.
There is so much info out there on the internet, it's just a matter of digging it out. I spent the bulk of yesterday afternoon doing just that and learned a heck of a lot and thoroughly enjoyed myself to boot ::
Regards,
Jay.

 

[mso489]

Thank you for this thread, and thank you pitchfork for the great info and maps. I've always thought old belt was just a general reference to the traditional tobacco growing states, but this is a much more detailed and accurate discussion of this. I have to come back and study these posts some more. I've lived in N.C. most of my adult life, after a Vietnam Navy hitch, as the tobacco economy has retrenched (to say the least). It's still big here, but nothing like it was, virtually the backbone of the economy, "when tobacco was king." Which it truly was.