FINANCIAL VIEW. 15 



transplanted or set, which process occupies several 

 weeks. Besides the older members of the family, 

 the little boys and girls work in the fields, thus 

 becoming familiar with the weed from their earli- 

 est childhood. 



In September the plants are cut, and, after lying 

 some hours in the sun, are hung under cover to 

 be cured. When the winter thaw occurs, they are 

 taken to a room where the leaves are stripped from 

 the stalk and packed in bundles, and then handled 

 one by one, to be arranged in grades, or sorted, 

 not being carried to market, however, until April. 

 Thus, throughout the year, tobacco is the great 

 subject of conversation, and, as it is an uncertain 

 crop, the mind is kept in an absorbed, anxious 

 condition till it is delivered, when the processes 

 are again started. Meantime, other crops are 

 mostly neglected. 



This culture is greatly on the increase. Among 

 other regions, the beautiful Onondaga valley in 

 New York State is becoming more and more devo- 

 ted to it. The reports from this valley as to its 

 unfavorable effect upon the health are clear and 

 decisive. Nor is this strange when we learn that 

 the stripping rooms are kept at a high temperature 

 and without ventilation. Thus the strippers who 

 work here for several months every year are 

 breathing the noxious vapor from morning till 

 night. Physicians assert that in this way many 

 cases of tobacco-poisoning occur. One instance 

 is given of an infant whose death ensued in con- 



