LEAF GOLD

Tobacco raising was the background for First The Fields, by Charles Wood Univ. Of North Carolina), and the general conclusions were not too rosy. Now comes a more optimistic view in a story of a successful share cropper, of the price be pays, of the victories he rings from the land. A solid tale, less harrowing than most of its type, with the power of tobacco as the motivating force behind the story of Bert, converted from a rolling stone past, and Nolie, waitress in a hamburger stand, who rebels at Bert's subservience to the demands of rotating crops and the bleakness of the outlook, evidenced by their neighbors. But Bert wins through to a farm of their own and Nolie's happiness. The setting is Kentucky.