18 TOBACCO. 



gular an assertion would be accepted, he replied : 

 "My statement was, I believe, literally and indis- 

 putably true, that the farmers of Old Hadley have, 

 for a quarter of a century, been planting, raising, 

 and gathering tobacco as the principal crop of the 

 soil ; yet that there is in the whole town not one 

 visible sign of improvement, enrichment, thrift, or 

 prosperity to show for it. In all these respects 

 the town, from end to end and side to side, has 

 lost rather than gained. It is not stransre that vou 

 are perplexed by a fact so paradoxical. So am I. 

 The mystery has sometimes struck me as contain- 

 ing a silent judgment of God on the abuse of his 

 ground." 



Alluding to some natural explanations that might 

 be suggested, he adds : "These only partially ac- 

 count for a blight so persistent and universal."' 



From the Boston Transcript we learn that enough 

 Connecticut tobacco has been produced in a single 

 year to make nine hundred millions of cigars ! 



Most eloquently writes Prof. Bascom : w Take 

 the land, the sunshine, the rain which God gives 

 you, and set them all at work to grow tobacco; 

 throw this, as your product, into the world's mar- 

 ket ; buy with it bread, clothing, and shelter, 

 books for yourselves, instruction for your children, 

 consideration in the community, and perchance 

 the gospel of grace ; pay ever and everywhere, for 

 the good you get, tobacco, only tobacco — tobacco, 

 that nourishes no man, clothes no man, instructs 

 no man, purifies no man, blesses no man ; tobacco, 



