By Donna Campbell Smith, February 2008
Farming
Mules plowed the fields, harvested the crops and carried the crop to market. On tobacco farms, a mule-drawn transplanter was used to set the plants in the ground. At harvest, mules pulled wooden sleds loaded with primed tobacco from the fields to the barns, where the leaves were cured. Finally, the mules were used to carry wagonloads of cured tobacco to market. Cotton farming was also dependent in the mule, as were corn, bean and peanut farmers.
The average farm in North Carolina at the turn of the 20th century had four mules. In 1935 a national census reported that North Carolina had 217,000 mules. In 1950 there were 250,000 mules here. But by 1960 there were not enough mules to even count. Automation had made them obsolete.
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