Other state and local revenues come from manufac- 

 turers of tobacco. These alone produced $4,662,000 in 

 Virginia taxes in 1959. The tax yield is supplemented by 

 firms associated with the tobacco industry in Virginia: 

 transportation and storage services, auction warehouses, 

 producers of machinery, packagings, filters and numer- 

 ous other equipment and materials required by tobacco 

 manufacturers. 



The various aspects of the current tobacco industry 

 in Virginia have now been briefly told. It is an im- 

 portant industry, the culmination of a slow develop- 

 ment that began when Rolfe first sowed the seeds that 

 saved Jamestown colony. 



A 



merica's first industry begins 



The three-and-a-half century record of tobacco in Vir- 

 ginia is by far the most dramatic portion of the plant's 

 long history. In many parts of the world, the culture of 

 tobacco became a routine industry almost from its incep- 

 tion. But in Virginia, particularly in the colonial period, 

 tobacco was responsible for a good deal of excitement, 

 of novel legislation, of a new social pattern and of a 

 whole train of events, some of them sensational in their 

 day. 



Just what took place at the start of tobacco agriculture 

 in England's first American mainland colony is hidden 

 in historical obscurity. The men who settled Jamestown 

 in May 1607 undoubtedly began to prepare for tobacco 

 planting as soon as they possibly could. By 1609, cer- 



