FINANCIAL VIEW. 17 



On this subject, a gentleman of large experience 

 writes : " The raising of tobacco has cursed our 

 fair valley. Hatfield, for instance, some twenty 

 years ago the richest town in the State according 

 to its population, early entered into the craze for 

 gain through tobacco-raising. As a result nearly 

 everj^one has failed financially. But far worse, — 

 our farmers, who once declared, 'I would cut off 

 my right hand rather than engage in such busi- 

 ness,' seeing their neighbors — at the outset — 

 growing rich, gradually choked conscience and be- 

 came absorbed in the traffic. This has demoralized 

 the people and paralyzed the church. The spirit- 

 ual death resting upon our valley may to a great 

 extent be traced to this cause." 



Before me is a letter from Bishop Huntington of 

 Central New York, dated June, 1884, and bearing 

 on the same point : M While my old homestead in 

 Hadley, Mass., lies on the Connecticut River, 

 where the alluvial soil is particularly favorable for 

 profitable tobacco crops, I have never allowed a 

 plant of it to be raised on the farm. There is an 

 extraordinary fact connected with the culture there, 

 which is attested by intelligent residents of the 

 town. Since 1855 enormous harvests of tobacco 

 have been raised and carried off every year, — 

 hundreds of thousands of pounds. Yet, by the 

 working of some mysterious law, not one dollar 

 can be found to show for it in all the property in- 

 vestments or scenery of the entire population." 



When there was some querying whether so sin- 



