1884.] QUESTIONS. 117 



it, so I am not speaking in that connection, but simply refer 

 to it as an economical question. Wlien it is said that tobacco 

 exhausts the land, the south is quoted to substantiate that 

 statement. 1 have taken some pains to investigate this mat- 

 ter, and I know what I am saying, and I say that the farmers 

 in Massachusetts who have grown tobacco for many years, 

 have not found that it exhausts their land. One man in 

 Hadley, told me that since he had grown tobacco as a staple 

 crop on his farm he had been able to keep nearly double the 

 number of neat stock that he did before he raised tobacco. 



Mr. Chamberlain. Will the gentleman allow me a moment. 

 He certainly misunderstood me if he understood me to say 

 that tobacco was an exhaustive crop upon the land on which 

 it is grown. I did not intend to state that. The impression 

 I meant to convey was that the farmer was apt to devote his 

 attention exclusively to the tobacco crop, to the neglect of 

 other portions of the farm. I do not believe that the tobacco 

 crop ordinarily exhausts more of the elements of growth than 

 the corn crop. 



Mr. Wetherell. What I was coming to was this, that the 

 farmer who grows tobacco can grow better crops of any other 

 kind that he produces than those farmers about him who do 

 not pursue this method of cultivation. 



Mr. Webb. Will the gentleman answer one question ? 

 How much experience has he had in raising tobacco, and is 

 he talking from experience ? 



Mr. Wetherell. I have had no experience in raising 

 tobacco. (Laughter.) I will ask the gentleman the ques- 

 tion: If he should tell me that a sewer was a muddy hole, 

 what would he think of me if I should ask him if he had 

 ever crawled through one to know it ? (Laughter and ap- 

 plause.) If a man does not know anything except from his 

 own experience, his knowledge must be very limited. (Ap- 

 plause. Now, you understand clearly, I am not a tobacco 

 grower. My farmer attempted it in one instance and it was 

 an utter failure, for the reason that the frost destroyed the 



