My Great Grandfather in western new york used to run his model A on the stuff (when he got tired of imbibing it). When I hear them talking about a top speed of 35 mph I keep thinking yeah right! It's just a good thing that they didn't have speed enforcement back then! Unfortunately the still overpressurized and cracked one day filling the barn and the ditches with rock gut..it found an ignition source down the way and they lost the still and the barn. Fortunately there was little in the way of evidence to prove what they were doing.

My mother almost got ahold of a jug back in '84 in Mississippi from an old farmer. At the last second he got nervous and switched conversation.

As far as weed being grown more than shine being cooked, it's easier to grow the stuff. You don't have to tend it much, you don't have to buy large quantites of yeast or sugar (a dead giveaway), you don't have the sweet smell wafting in the breeze to lead the revenuers to it and you don't have the sound of the boilers going which can be heard from a good distance.