The Newtown bee., 1892-08-19

the railroad to Cape May. Woodbine is down on most maps and is very old set I clement. It is some 12 miles from the ocean and six or eight miles from Dela- ware bay. When the land was bought, there were seven houses in Woodbine, toes for generations and apparently had not done much else. With the advent of the agents of the Hirsch fund, there came a great change. The 5000 acres were staked off into thirty-acre plots and force of men recruited from among the Russian Jews then living in New York tenements, waiting for something bet ter, were set at work.
 It was highly advisable that whatever help came from the Hirsch fund should not be regarded by the Russians AS char ity, inasmuch as this would make them dependent. They were told in every in- stance that they could only hope to keep body and soul together at Woodbine if they worked hard and faithfully, and that the Hirsch fund intended only to give them an opportunity to work; if they failed, the fund would have nothing more to do with them. With this understand ing, 20 of the Russians were detailed to Woodbine and lodgings were made for them in the houses that were bought with the property. Then began the work of settling. It was arranged that to each family would be given a 30-acre farm, the improvements to consist of a small two-story house, 1Sx22, with brick eel lar, barn l2xls, COW shed and we'll. Ten of the 30 acres were to be cleared of stump and plowed. The outfit, moreover, was to include one COW, pig, 9 chick ems, garden tools, manure and seeds for one planting; there were also to be set out four acres in small fruits such as raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and entrants, and two acres in apple trees and plums.
 AS very few of the Russians understood our methods of building, carpenters and masons were brought from Philadelphia to put up the houses, and the Russians were employed as helpers. When the first 20 had been supplied with farms laid l ed, each man brought his family to the farm, but continued to work every day at clearing off and building houses for others. For this work, the Russians were paid S2 day out of the fund. When farm was ready. another family was in- vited out from New York, and so work went on until to-day there are 65 famil- | SafrlaI at Wnnlhi.an 3O-acre farm. Inasmuch as the farm pro- duce this year, the first planting since the ground was cleared, cannot amount to very much, the 60 men now there still receive work from the fund, in the way of cutting down wood. building, road making, tree planting and whatever needs to be done upon the settlement; and this will be kept up so long as the farms do not offer return for the work put upon them. Besides earning such money out side, each man is expected to keep his own farm in first class order, his wife and children helping him; and from the inspection I made of the place, I should say that the work had been done so far in most conscientious manner.
 Of course the settlement looks at pres ent extremely rough, and the plots which are called gardens appear to be little bet ter than the scrub oak before it was clear ed off. Nevertheless, it is out of just such soil that some of the beautiful veg etable gardens at Vineland have been made, and that is really the test of the whole thing. The cost of the land to the Hirsch fund has been about S5 an acre on the average. The house and out buildings upon each farm have averaged $500; the work of clearing, planting, the seeds. COW, etc., have cost about $500 more for each place, and we may say that the average expense of settling farmer and his family is about $500, so that the total expense to the fund so far is about $100,0 ,000. When farmer settles down, he gets no deed of the place, but an agreement providing that if he pays s4OO within three years, he receives deed of the 10 acres upon which his house stands; when he pays $400 more he gets the re- maining 20 acres; and the $700 still re- maining due can be left as a mortgage upon the place for an indefinite time; thus nothing is actually given to the set tiers; it is simply loaned to them, to be finally turned over at the cost price when they are able to pay for it.
 The Woodbine colony has at its head an energetic Russian, former professor in a school of agriculture at Odessa. He is very sanguine as to the outcome of the scheme, but confesses that it needs pa- tience upon the part both of the settlers and of the trustees of the fund. Some small industries have already sprung up whereby the people expect to make enough money to live on when the Win ter prevents all returns from the gardens. One of the New York cloak manufactur- CTS has esta ablished a three-story factory there and gives work to about 60 of the girls of the place. H. H. H. in Hart | ford Times.