h founts flowing clearer and purer.
The musician "lord of sounds," evokes tones from his instrument never
before heard by mortal ear. The warrior, "fresh from glory's field" is
charmed by its fragrance as he dreams of shattered battalions and
sleeping hosts. The farmer nurtured amid the odors of the "balmy
plant" honors the "useless weed" as a promoter of happiness and an
increaser of gains. While:

"Kings smoke when they ruminate
Over grave affairs of state."

The exile too, far from home and kindred smokes on as he muses of
happier hours gone never to return. And thus amid all the varied ranks
and walks of life this solace of the mind and comfort of life exhales
its fragrance and breathes its benedictions over all.

CHAPTER X.

TOBACCO PLANTERS AND PLANTATIONS.

The grounds selected for the cultivation of tobacco are called by
various names even in the same countries. Thus in the Connecticut
Valley, such lands are called tobacco fields, at the South they are
known as tobacco plantations, while in Cuba they are called Vegas or
tobacco farms. In Cuba almost the entire tobacco farm is planted to
tobacco while at the South and in New England this is rarely the case
unless the plantations or tobacco farms are small and contain but a
few acres. In the Connecticut Valley and more especially along the
banks of the Connecticut River, where the farms are frequently small,
this is sometimes the case but farther removed from the river, where
the farms are much larger but a few acres of the best land is used for
this purpose.

In the Connecticut Valley the tobacco fields average from one to forty
acres, rarely exceeding the latter and indeed seldom including as
large an area. The average size of tobacco fields is about five
acres--sometimes all in one lot but oftener divided into several small
pieces on various parts of the farm.

The Connecticut planter is deeply interested in the plant and gives it
his undivided attention from seed-sowing until it is sold to the
speculator or manufacturer. All other crops in his opinion are of but
little importance compared with the great New England product, one
crop is frequently not off his hands before he is preparing for
another. The Connecticut planter stands first in the rank of tobacco
growers; he is thoroughly acquainted with the nature of the plant and
knows just what land to select and what kind of fertilizers to apply.
He has reduced the cultivation to almost an