that had
not existed before. Gradually, harvest after harvest, the colonists
were able to add to their possessions additional tools and equipment.

He was a shiftless man indeed who could not provide ample food for
his own needs. The history of Virginia during colonial times was
intimately connected with the tobacco crop. The general welfare of
the people rose and fell with the value placed on the leaf in
England.

EFFORTS TO SUSTAIN HIGHER PRICES

With the over supply of tobacco the English market became extremely
discriminating in regard to the quality of the leaf it would
purchase. The colonial government from time to time resorted to
legislative expedients to prevent the shipment of inferior grades.
Governor Wyatt, in 1621 ordered that "for every head they should
plant but 1,000 plants of tobacco and upon each plant nine leaves."
John Rolfe also stated, in 1619, that, "An industrious man not
otherwaies imploied may well tend foure akers of corne, and 1,000
plants of tobacco." A thousand plants would give each worker about
112 pounds of tobacco a year. In 1628, an inspection law was enacted
and in 1640, it was ordered that all bad tobacco and half the good
should be destroyed.

Governor Berkeley, in 1664, made several ineffectual attempts to form
agreements, with the planters of Maryland and North Carolina, to
restrict the production of tobacco. The planters of each colony were
willing for those of the other to stop planting, or to destroy as
much tobacco as they pleased; but looking to their own selfish
interests they would increase rather than decrease their crop. The
Virginia General Assembly, in 1666, prohibited all culture of tobacco
but the Maryland authorities complained that the law was ignored by
the Virginia planters.

The Virginia colonists developed a keen rivalry among themselves in
efforts to improve the quality of the leaf grown. Reverend John
Clayton, in 1688, says: "For there is not only two distinct sorts of
sweet-scented and Aranoko tobacco but of these be several sorts, much
different, the seeds whereof are known by distinct names, of those
gentlemen most famed for such sort of tobacco, as of prior seed etc."

The Aranoko, probably from the Orinoco river region in South America,
was grown on the heavy clay soils. The product was a strong tobacco
that was most in demand in Germany and other North European
countries. The sweet-scented was grown on the lighter sandy soils and
although the