TOBACCO AND ITS CULTURE. 169 



produce of the dairy, as it ever was in the past, if the fam- 

 ily expenses cau be made as small as they were thirty or 

 forty years ago. 



Mr. West. The question was asked by the gentleman 

 who preceded the last speaker, what crops could be raised to 

 pay for a farm. There are gentlemen present who have had 

 success in raising grass as a crop. 



The Chairman. That is a little foreign to the subject. 

 We want to confine ourselves to the raising of tobacco. I 

 don't think the question of morality need come up. 



Mr. Myrick. There is one point about this protection 

 asrainst Sumatra tobacco which I think gentlemen who advocate 

 protection for other crops overlook. We can raise corn, pota- 

 toes, cabbages and beans, which are imported into this coun- 

 try in such large quantities, everywhere. Wrappers for ci- 

 gars can be raised only in a limited section. I believe the 

 total product last year was 400,000 bales ; at any rate it was 

 a comparatively small quantity. But the point is, that the 

 area on which tobacco can be raised is so small, comparative- 

 ly, that any considerable importation, at low prices, of any 

 tobacco which will take the place of these wrappers, will put 

 them in the place of second quality tobacco. 



Mr. Sessions. There is only a limited section of the 

 country where this tobacco question is of interest. Men 

 who work on hill fjirms, as I do, really have no interest in 

 this matter, because we are not so situated that we can raise 

 tobacco. But that is no reason why we should object 

 to gentlemen raising it who live in this valley and have land 

 specially adapted to this business ; gentlemen whose farms, 

 although they are very productive, and would surpass our 

 hill farms in their products, yet are circumscribed in area. 

 They can make tobacco, as the essayist told us, a crop in 

 rotation, and go over their whole f^irms, and improve their 

 whole farms. That does not apply to my farm, because my 

 farm is composed of pine plains and hill land, meadow land 

 and pasture land. Let us look the thing squarely in the 

 face. The farmers of this section of the State, the farmers 

 of Pennsylvania, and the farmers of Ohio are particularly 

 interested in this matter. Let us look at it in that light, and 

 not say, because we are not interested, because it does not 



