  An effective field theory of quarks, gluons, and pions, with the number $N$
of colors treated as large, is proposed as a basis for calculations of hadronic
phenomena at moderate energies. The qualitative consequences of the large $N$
limit are similar though not identical to those in pure quantum chromodynamics,
but because constituent quark masses appear in the effective Lagrangian, the `t
Hooft coupling in the effective theory need not be strong at moderate energies.
To leading order in $1/N$ the effective theory is renormalizable, with only a
finite number of terms in the Lagrangian.
