Before the Civil War, Person County had many large plantations. Early farmers produced tobacco, cotton, corn, wheat, oats, fruits, vegetables, cattle, hogs and sheep. These products can still be found in Person County, however, many of the area’s largest plantations were dismantled as a part of the reconstruction following the war.

Today, with more than 753 farms with an average size of 125 acres, Person County is still largely dependent upon agriculture as a primary economic foundation. While tobacco continues to be the county’s leading producer, profits have begun to decline with the influx of foreign tobaccos. Person County’s farmers have had to be proactive and flexible in replacing lost tobacco income.

Progressive farmers have diversified into new venues and are not sitting back waiting for things to happen…they are making them happen! The Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperative Stabilization Corporation was formed in 1946. Entering their 62nd year, a lot has changed since the inception of the cooperative. In the past, the Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperative administered the flue-cured tobacco price support system through a contractual arrangement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperative continues to evolve in ways to assist flue-cured tobacco growers to compete more effectively in a free market. Part of the process is to find more ways to market U.S. flue-cured tobacco while allowing grower-members to have more options and remain independent business people.

“The Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperative is processing all of the flue-cured tobacco that the cooperative members grow and selling it to domestic and foreign customers worldwide,” says Arnold Hamm, President of the U.S. Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers, Inc. “We are looking forward to a long and prosperous relationship with Person County. We are producing private label cigarettes and have introduced our own brands into the market place enabling this facility to be an asset for Roxboro and the surrounding area.”

Due to tobacco quota cuts, Carver Brothers Farms, a family-owned business had to diversify into turfgrass, an alternative crop, to continue to make a living. What started with fifteen acres in 2000 has grown to 60 acres due to an increase in residential and commercial building and a healthy demand for a high quality turfgrass product.