4.] Tobacco. 45 II. WHERE CULTIVATED. TOBACCO. OBACCO forms a staple product in many parts of the Southern States, st India Islands, and South America. e most excellent tobacco is produced Virginia. The Carolinas, Venezuela, ba, and Brazil export large quantities. thin a few years it has formed an imrtant product in several sections of the rthern and middle States. In some parts Connecticut it has been successfully culated, and it is found to grow well upon e rich bottom lands in the valley of the onnecticut river in Massachusetts The op in Pennsylvania has, during the last vo years, brought millions of dollars to he agriculturalists of that State. IN EUROPE, ASIA, AND AFRICA. In Great Britain the growing of tobacco prohibited by law. Its cultivation is carried on to a considerable extent in Holand, Flanders, Alsace, Hungary, and Euro Dean Turkey; but the quality of the plant grown in these countries is far inferior to hat produced in America. Tobacco of a good quality is raised in the Levant, and in India, especially in the Indian Archipelago; large quantities are produced in China and Japan. It also forms an important crop in South Africa, having been introduced by the Dutch; and quite recently the English have commenced its culture in Australia. ITS EFFECTS UPON SOIL. Tobacco is cultivated with the greatest success upon virgin soil, or, as the farmer denominates it, "new land." It requires a deep rich mould which, if not renewed and kept up by constant feeding with decaying vegetable matter, soon becomes sterile. On account of this character of the plant to impoverish and exhaust soils, it is regarded as a curse, carrying its blighting effects not only to the people who cultivate and use it, but to the very soil upon which it grows. THE INFLUENCE IT EXERTS UPON THE REVENUE OF NATIONS forms an important feature of its history. It is a special subject of legislation of the several governments of Europe in whose territories it is produced. In some it is a royal monopoly; in others it is admitted from abroad under very high duties. In some of the European governments it is bought of the producers by the crown at a low price and sold at an extravagant profit, protected by prohibitory import duties. The English prohibit its cultivation in the British Isles, and admit it under high duties. In 1851 the revenue to the British government from tobacco was $22,428,840. In the same year the production reached 2,000,000 of tons, which, at five cents per pound would amount to $40,000,000. THE PART IT PLAYS IN THE WORLD. When we consider the fact that this plant produces no nutritive substance-is an unsightly object while growing, having no beauty of flowers or foliage, no pleasant odors-but, on the contrary, has a disagreeable taste and smell, when eaten produces vomiting and giddiness, and when taken in large quantities causes death, we are surprised that it should play the part it does in the world-that it should become an important agricultural product-that it should be produced in such quantities as to require one-eighth of the tonnage of the civilized world to freight it-that its commercial importance should compare favorably with any other single article-that it should be made the pet of empires and the object of special legislation-that thousands should be busied in its production and manufacture-that vast amounts of capital should be employed in its purchase and sale-and that nearly half the male population of the civilized world should be engaged in chewing, smoking, and snuffing tobacco. But it has happened with this poisonous, fated plant as with men who sometimes rise without merit to posts of honor and dignity. W The Educational Monthly. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. "Christmas is here! Icy and chill, Weather without, "Evenings we knew Kind hearts and true, We sing round the tree." HILE those who knew and loved him were singing this Christmas carol of Thackeray's, the kind heart and true that first sang the song was lying stilled forever. He has taught us how to speak of him, not only by the simple, tender appreciation with which he spoke of the dead, but by the many works in which his shrewd insight, kind heart, nimble wit, and consuming satire, held the mirror up. to nature, and pleaded for humanity and truth. He was a man of heroic simplicity and candor, with the profoundest hate of of all kinds of hypocrisy-a hate which became indignation from his consciousness that neither he nor any man could entirely escape the influence of the social atmosphere he was compelled to breathe. "It is in the air, gentlemen," he always seems to say; 66 we all have the disease more or less. I have no doubt that I should be very glad to be seen walking down Pall Mall with a duke on each arm." this impatience of falsity which the more It was that it was gilded was the more repulsive to him, because more dangerous, that made him often blunt, rough, stern in his manners, although he lived in the most courtly circles. He ranged through British clubs and drawing-rooms, a Bersekir in the mask of Mephistophiles, refusing to accept amiability for fidelity, or politeness for humanity. He was called a cynic by the snobs, and a snob by the cynics. He was in reality a great moralist, preaching trenchant sermons from the most familiar texts; honoring love and truth, charity and wisdom; find As a pure novelist, or When Miss Bront him the second edition o The death of every gre faill The Bible in School. e, honest man! How sadly and soland fitly now sound your own mas words! My song save this has little worth; I lay the weary pen aside, 47 And wish you health, and love, and mirth, As fits the holy Christmas birth, Be this, good friends, our carol still: Harper's Weekly. TH A TWILIGHT SCENE. HE twilight deepened round us. Still and black And on their skirts, where yet the lingering day On the shorn greenness of the clearing lay, The brown old farm-house like a bird's nest hung. J. G. Whittier. THE BIBLE IN SCHOOL. HE importance of connecting moral - with intellectual culture in youth, and necessity of introducing and using the ole in schools for that purpose, are unisally conceded by the Christian educator patron. The best method or most efficient manr, however, of using the Scriptures, is by means agreed upon, as the diversity of odes show,-and it is to this subject, that would respectfully and briefly call attenon. The proposition, as to whether the ble should be regularly introduced in hools, studied, and recited, during the aily sessions, as Arithmetic, is not the abject proposed,-but it is the manner of sing it in the opening exercises every morning. I shall present four Methods, from which hope the young teacher may derive some aluable hints, suggestive of variety, if nothing more, as the teacher may use I. READING BY THE TEACHER. II. SELECT READING AND EXPOSITIONS BY This consists in the selection, reading, and exposition of such chapter, text, or passage, as the teacher may think most appropriate and instructive. The exposi ion of such reinta tive. This method is more efficient than the first, and a little tact and ingenuity on the part of the teacher, will enable him to command the attention of the school. This is an excellent plan, provided there exists no suspicion of sectarianism against the teacher. It is thought to afford a teacher, if he is so disposed, an excellent opportunity of propagating his peculiar sentiments among his pupils. It is admirably adapted to sectarian schools, and to any school, if a teacher is prudent in the use of it. III. READING BY THE PUPILS. This method requires each pupil to have a Bible, and the whole school to read, beginning with a chapter, each reading a verse, till all have read, and so on through the chapter or lesson. This, however, has but little more value than a common reading exercise. But few of the pupils take interest enough in it to know, even what chapter comes next, or was read last. They realize not the momentous import of the words of eternal life, and may not the practical effects of such an exercise create a criminal indifference to the Divine teachings, is a question for prayerful considera tion. IV. RECITATION BY THE PUPILS.-A LEO TURK BY THE TEACHER. This method consists in requiring the whole school, or a section of it, embracing not less than twenty, to make voluntary selections of such texts, verses, or paragraphs as they may choose, memorizing them perfectly, and reciting every morning as a class. The sections may be increased or diminished, in number, to suit the size of the school. If there be two sections, let each recite every other day, and if three, every third day, &c. Each pupil should select such a verse or number of verses as will state some truth or proposition, or make good sense, and the same pupil ought not to be allowed to repeat the same Scripture, in two different recitations. The teacher's lecture, only a few minutes long, follows the recitation, and is designed to give an extempore, practical exposition of such of the Scriptures teacher may choose; and the conduct of every-day li To illustrate suppose, i the following Scriptures h by two of the pupils: "En path of the wicked, and go of evil men." "A false w go unpunished, and he that perish." The first of these passage teacher a text, and an opp pressing upon the minds of importance and necessity o company; and from the show them the direful conse hood and warn them agains way the teachings of the I terwoven with the daily lab and so applied to the solut ous problems that may co conduct, as to supersede t what the master of the " "feruled" subjects were w "Rules of School." The i exercise, when properly co formation of character and can not be over-estimated. mon pupilage, the mind is most beautiful and instru from the word of God. against every vice and incu tue. If the snares of vici set in our pathway, we he "Enter not into the path and we shun them. If the falsehood are upon us, we "He that telleth lies shall resist them. The fourth method, thus b is my own favorite one. I many years, with unflaggi involves the labor of both pil. My advanced pupils great interest in the exe them existed a generous e who should select the mo beautiful passages, and I b touched with their impressi With a becoming distrust ness of my own judgment I respectfully submit what the attention of teachers an English language will be searched in vain for a more beautiful and truly touching ent than is embodied in this poetic gem. It is heart speaking to heart; mortality ning with the immortal; the weary spirit piercing the veil of flesh to take a loving at Heaven's eternal mansions.-Editor. WHAT SHALL BE MY ANGEL NAME? N the land where I am going, When my earthly life is o'er, Where the tired hands cease their striving, And the tired heart aches no more; In that land of life and beauty, What shall be my angel name? When the spirits who await me, Will tender welcoming begin? Will not be my angel name! I have heard it all too often, Dim it with their deep eclipse: For the angels will not call me By the name I bear on earth; Sweeter far than earth may claim, Very gentle, pure, and tender, It has thrilled my spirit often, Which the lips of mortals frame, |