businesses for supply, transportation, advertising, dis- 

 tribution and other necessary functions. 



The tobacco industry is the oldest commercial enter- 

 prise in our country with an unbroken continuity dating 

 from around 1613. Its use of a large labor force, its 

 dependence upon the supplies and services of numerous 

 industries, its interstate operations, all give it a place of 

 major importance in the national economy. 



Any segment of the national tobacco market, such as 

 Kansas, represents more than merely another retail out- 

 let. Essential to the disposition of tobacco goods are 

 wholesalers and distributors, vending machine suppliers, 

 transportation services, media advertising — and other 

 workers in the state required to maintain the flow of 

 goods and provide services. 



rocliaction in Kansas has an early start 



A year after Kansas became a state in 1861, tobacco 

 was being grown as a cash crop. The first ofiicial statis- 

 tical reports of the agricultural products of Kansas are 

 incomplete. The tobacco harvest of 1862 was Hsted as 

 14,618 pounds. Fifteen years later tobacco crops totaled 

 530,839 pounds, worth $53,083 to growers. 



Settlers were being invited to the new state where, 

 said its promoters, everything could be grown. This en- 

 thusiasm found expression in such pubHshed comments 

 as, "You have but to tickle the soil of Kansas to make it 

 laugh a harvest." 



