WHY IT SHOULD BE GROWN. 13 



and, in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest 

 resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit 

 that is bottomless." 



When we consider the immense advantage to 

 be derived by the necessary change in the laws, 

 it may well seem astonishing that a decided effort 

 in that direction should be delayed. 



As far as the " allotments" or the " small 

 holdings " are concerned, the cultivation of 

 tobacco would be apparently the only means of 

 making such a system a profitable one. 



England has, by a series of disappointments, 

 proved that corn-growing, even when under- 

 taken by capitalists — men who have brought 

 science, education, and every modern improve- 

 ment to bear, is now a ruinous enterprise, and 

 one after another estates and farms are being 

 laid down to grass as the least expensive manner 

 of using the land— meaning, of coui'se, labour 

 minimised and labourers thrown on their own 

 resources, i.e., the parish. 



On the other hand, tobacco- gi'O wing can be 

 practised and made profitable on exceedingly 

 small areas of land and without the outlay of 

 much capital. 



The following table of outlay and returns is 

 furnished by the tobacco-growing farmers in the 

 vicinity of Blandain, a frontier town of Belgium 



