CLEMENTS - At a farm only about 10 miles from where Maryland's first settlers landed in 1634 and built an economy around the growing of tobacco, Walter and Betty Russell feel they are playing out the industry's final chapter in Maryland.
"This will be our last crop," Walter Russell said as he sat on a metal chair in the dusty stripping shed behind his home, picking the dried leaves from a stalk of tobacco harvested this year.
With great reluctance, they insist, the Russells have joined the majority of the other leaf growers in the state and signed up for a state buyout program that will pay them not to grow tobacco.
"It's hard to give it up," Walter Russell said. "Sure, it's hard work, but we loved it. When you love something so much, it leaves a big empty place in your heart when you walk away. My family has been growing tobacco as long as anybody can remember. My great-great-grandfather grew tobacco. It's such a big part of our history."
When the Russells take their crop to Hughesville for the state's annual tobacco auction starting March 25, it will be with the understanding that they could be witnessing the end of a 360-year tradition.
"The farmers and the tobacco companies are looking at it on a year-to-year basis," said state Agriculture Secretary Hagner R. Mister, himself a former tobacco grower. "We expect 2 1/2 to 3 million pounds of tobacco at auction next year. If production continues to hold at 3 million pounds a year, we will probably have more auctions. But if production drops to 2 million pounds ... it is doubtful there will be a market."
The industry's decline is also taking a toll on the tobacco warehouses where the auctions are held. Mister said that two, and possibly three, warehouses will not open for next year's auction. This could limit sales to a warehouse in Hughesville and one in Waldorf.
Two years ago, state tobacco sales totaled 8.1 million pounds. Production has been declining for some time, but the buyout accelerated the process.
As recently as 1982, state farmers sold 38.3 million pounds of leaf - called Maryland Type 32 and used in a blend of tobacco to help cigarettes burn evenly - for $58.3 million.
In the 1960s, tobacco was still considered the backbone of the Southern Maryland economy.
In Colonial times, it was used as currency with which farmers could pay the preacher, buy a new plow or obtain a bride from Europe.
The Russells view themselves as among the latest casualties of the industry's decline.
"At first, Walter and I were opposed to the buyout," Betty Russell said. "But the government forced us to take it. You can't fight City Hall."
They both expressed a fear of getting caught in a situation where so many other growers would take the buyout that production would fall to a level that the tobacco companies would no longer come to the state.
"We were afraid of getting trapped," said Walter Russell. "If we don't have a market, we're left with nothing."
His wife added: "We held out as long as we could. Now it would be stupid not to take the buyout, considering the crop's doubtful future."
Christine Bergmark, director for agriculture development at the Southern Maryland Tri-County Council, which administers the state's tobacco buyout program, reports that 712 of the 1,001 farmers eligible for the buyout have signed up for payments. She said applications have been mailed to the remaining 289 growers, and they have until Jan. 15 to sign up for this year's buyout. Their last chance to accept the state offer will come late next year.
Despite the cashing out by so many farmers, not everyone is certain that Maryland's involvement with tobacco will be ending soon.
David L. Conrad, a tobacco extension agent with the University of Maryland, expects the market to remain at the 3 million-pound level for years to come. And he thinks that's enough to attract both foreign and domestic buyers.
"I talk to farmers who still insist they are not going to take the buyout," he said.
Conrad said that an influx of Amish and Mennonite tobacco farmers from Pennsylvania into Cecil County in recent years has added about 100 acres of production. He said there are other pockets of Amish and Mennonite growers in St. Mary's County and other parts of the state.
Whereas the Amish and Mennonites accounted for only 10 percent to 20 percent of the state's total leaf production a few years ago, they currently supply about 75 percent. Conrad said the Amish and Mennonites are generally opposed to participating in government programs and have given no indication of leaving tobacco.
"There was a time, and it was not too long ago, when everybody in this area was into tobacco," Betty Russell said. "Now, you have to drive a mile or two miles to find another grower. Things have really changed."