varieties, the Indians abandoned the indigenous, harsh 

 Nicotiana rustica to which they had been long accus- 

 tomed and would smoke only the white man's tobacco. 



Tc 



obacco becomes an agricultural industry 



Observers in the late 18th century occasionally re- 

 marked on the twisted rolls of tobacco (cawttes) found 

 in Illinois territory. This home manufacture had been 

 started by the French settlers to whom that form of 

 rolling tobacco leaves was familiar. Other visitors com- 

 mented on the "great quantities of tobacco yearly raised 

 by the inhabitants" for their own use and for the Indians. 

 But, one went on to say, "little has hitherto been ex- 

 ported to Europe." He was writing at a time when Illinois 

 had been annexed to the Province of Quebec. After the 

 War of Independence, it was for a while under the civil 

 jurisdiction of Virginia. 



Before the middle of the 19th century Illinois tobacco 

 was finding markets outside the state. In 1844 more 

 than half a million pounds of leaf harvested in Illinois, 

 chiefly in Williamson County, were shipped out via Chi- 

 cago by Lakes vessels. Seven years earlier, an enthusi- 

 astic promoter of the good earth of Illinois had written: 

 Tobacco can be produced in any quantity, and 

 of the first quality, in Illinois; the soil and 

 climate being in every respect congenial to its 

 growth. 



