ginia
the plant could only be gotten by cultivating it, or buying it from the savages. It does not appear to have been of spontaneous growth in the soil of the country. Even to-day, when so much tobacco is produced in the State, and when it has been the staple crop for two hundred and seventy-five years, we do not observe it springing up by the roadside as if it were an ordinary weed which spreads without the intervention of the hands of man. As the Indians and the colonists were so constantly at war, Rolfe was probably induced to cultivate a small patch for his own use as a means of obtaining a certain supply. Secondary to this motive was a desire to find some commodity that could be sold at a profitable rate in the markets of England, thus advancing the prosperity of the settlers, and promoting the success of the Company. This condition appeared to be fulfilled in the case of tobacco, if it could be produced in quantities large enough, and of sufficient excellence in quality to allow an active competition with the importers of the Spanish leaf, which at this time met the demand in England.
The experiment of Rolfe would probably have led to the exclusive cultivation of tobacco by the colonists, but for the fact that Sir Thomas Dale was able to govern their action. His first object was to provide them with an abundance of grain. In 1614 alone, it is stated that there were five hundred acres planted in maize. The changes which he introduced were well calculated to keep the common store always ample. Previous to the arrival of Dale, the settlers did not have even a modified interest in the soil, or a partial ownership in the returns of their
scribed it as “poore and weake . . . not of the best kynde.” History of Travaile into Virginia, p. 121. Rolfe, in testing the capacity of the plant, as known in Virginia, to improve under English cultivation, was really making an experiment which might or might not be successful.
