s 



tobacco farming could be bought in the county for $150 

 to $250 an acre. A farmer in the area reported tlie result 

 of growing a good crop in that period. He had made a 

 profit of $85.50 by selling the yield of each acre (2,000 

 pounds) for $280. His experience was matched by 

 neighboring growers. 



In the tenth census (1880), it was reported that there 

 were 271 factories in Massachusetts making cigars and 

 cheroots. The manufacturers' value of these products in 

 that year was over $2 million. More than 55.6 million 

 cigars had been rolled by hand workers in the reported 

 year and this total placed Massachusetts eighth in do- 

 mestic cigar production. Nearly 6 million cigarettes, not 

 then thought of as ever likely to liecome a serious com- 

 petitor to the virile cigar, had come out of Massachusetts 

 factories in 1880. There were then nine factories pro- 

 ducing chewing and smoking tobaccos but the total for 

 these plants came to less than 450,000 pounds. The yield 

 to the federal revenue in the fiscal year of 1880, chiefly 

 from manufactured products, was $609,555. 



moke fighters 



Fitchburg, Massachusetts had, from the 1860's, become 

 the center of energetic American antitobacconists. 

 Under the supervision of Reverend George Trask a 

 series of frequently hysterical messages, in badly printed 

 tracts, flooded the land. These publications of the Anti- 

 Tobacco Depository provided material for numerous 

 futile sermons and lectures. 



In an effort to show how the "Demon weed had cor- 

 rupted" even church officials, Trask reported a conver- 

 sation between a farmer and his deacon. The farmer 

 was doubtful about the morality of growing tobacco 

 after reading Trask's pamphlets. The deacon 



justified raising tlie crop on the score that to- 

 bacco had been used for centuries, used the 



27 



