Tobacco is still a vital factor in Virginia's economy. Of approximately 2,000,000 acres of cropland (pastureland excluded) in 1949, 115,400 were planted in tobacco which produced 124,904,000 pounds valued at $55,120,800 or twenty-three percent of the total value of all agricultural crops. Of the four largest agricultural products—poultry, tobacco, meat animals, and milk—tobacco ranked second only to poultry in terms of income in 1955. Poultry produced an income of $99,935,000, tobacco $84,128,000, meat animals $80,564,000, and milk $70,681,000. Peanuts and fruits were tied for fifth place, each producing an income of about $21,000,000.
Of the many different industries in Virginia today only five—food, textile, wearing apparel, chemical, and the manufacture of transportation equipment—employ more workers than the tobacco manufacturers. In 1953 a total of $40,000,000, in salaries and wages, was paid to production workers in the tobacco manufacturing industry in Virginia.
Although tobacco is no longer "king" in the Old Dominion, Virginia farmers produce enough of the "golden weed" each year to make one long cigarette that would stretch around the world fifty times.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This is to acknowledge the sources for the following illustrations: Methods of Transporting Tobacco to Market and Plantation Tobacco Houses and Public Warehouses—William Tatham, An Historical and Practical Essay on the Culture and Commerce of Tobacco, London, 1800; An Old Tobacco Warehouse—courtesy of Mrs. H. I. Worthington, Directress of the Ralph Wormeley Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, Syringa, Virginia; Tobacco cultivated by the Indians and Tobacco imported from the West Indies—these two pictures were reproduced by permission of George Arents and courtesy of the Virginia State Library. The pictures were found originally in Tobacco; Its History Illustrated by the Books, Manuscripts and Engravings in the Library of George Arents, Jr., together with an Introductory Essay, a Glossary and Bibliographic Notes, by Jerome E. Brooks, Volume 1, (The Rosenbach Company, New York, 1937). However, the two pictures in this pamphlet were reproduced from Virginia Cavalcade, by courtesy of the Virginia State Library.
I am also grateful to Dr. E. G. Swem for his critical reading of the manuscript and his helpful suggestions, and to my wife for her proficient typing of the manuscript.
G. M. H.