″‘The land’s used up, Old John,’ she mourned. ‘It just has no more life to raise tobacco, or cotton, or any other crops.’
Old John agreed. He knew that the Masters in Virginia had used the land until it bled and died.”
″‘Oh,’ M.C. said, and then: ‘Are her greens any good this year?’
‘Nothing’s any good this year,’ Ben replied. ‘My daddy says it will get worse with mining going on everywhere.‘”
“Nayasha kept a small plot of land, on which she grew millet, sunflowers, yams, and vegetables. She always sang as she worked, and some said it was her singing that made her crops more beautiful than anyone else’s.”
“Supposed we have fine weather, fine crops, all the stock in good shape. Now that’s wealth. Real wealth. But what’s the result? Counted in dollars, we’re poor. Sometimes the best crops make a man the poorest.”