The Chautauquan, Vol. 05, January 1885, No. 4

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The Chautauquan.
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE PROMOTION OF TRUE CULTURE. ORGAN OF THE CHAUTAUQUA LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC CIRCLE.
Vol. V. JANUARY, 1885. No. 4.
President , Lewis Miller, Akron, Ohio. Chancellor , J. H. Vincent, D.D., New Haven, Conn. Counselors , The Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D., the Rev. J. M. Gibson, D.D.; Bishop H. W. Warren, D.D.; Prof. W. C. Wilkinson, D.D.; Edward Everett Hale. Office Secretary , Miss Kate F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J. General Secretary , Albert M. Martin, Pittsburgh, Pa.
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BY FELIX L. OSWALD, M.D.
The WASTE OF LAND and the WASTE OF LABOR must be considered together, in order to comprehend the total amount of the loss which the fourteen most civilized nations inflict on themselves by the unspeakable folly of devoting from 20 to 25 per cent. of their fertile area to the production of stimulating poisons. If the land thus abused were simply neglected, if it were abandoned to the weeds and tares, the laborers who now cultivate it in the interest of hell might employ their time in assisting their friends and help them to cultivate better or larger crops on the soil of the adjoining lands. If they should prefer to emigrate, their abandoned fields might be cultivated by their neighbors. Even children in the intervals of their play might plant cherry stones, and help the soil to contribute to the welfare of the community. As it is, it contributes only to the development of diseases, vices and crimes. The productions of the land, the toil of the husbandmen, are not only utterly lost, but become a curse to the population of the country. Starving Ireland devotes a third of her arable lands to the production of distillery crops. Spain begs with one hand and with the other flings two-fifths of her produce to the poison vender. The statistics of the last census show that distilleries devour every year 34,300,000 acres of our total farm produce; breweries, 9,600,000; wine cellars, cider mills (not to mention tobacco factories), about five millions more!