Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-02-16
JEWS In NEW JERSEY.
A Colony Esta blished by Eirsch,
the Philanthropic Banker.
An Experiment Which Promises to Be-
come an Established SUGGESTIVE
People Prefer Trade to
Farming.

The reports which have been from
time to time received from the Hirsch
agricultural colony in New Jersey have
been nearly as conflicting and quite as
unsatisfactory and unsubstantial as
certain wal bulletins which engaged
! the attention of humorous writer's dur
ing the progress Of military naneuvers
in Madagascar some years ago. On
one hand, according to the New York
Sun, the Russian colonists in Cape May
county were represented as being in a
! fourishing condition and in possession
Of lands teeming with fertility. On
the other they were pathetically de-
scribed as lacking needful raiment and
decent shelter, without means or hope,
restricted to uncongenial and unproft-
| able toll in a strange land, and utterly
wretched, Respondent and dependent.
Under these circumstances, any con-
clusion as to the success of the Hirsch
experiment was difficult to arrive at,
but it need be so no longer if the report
made recently to the New Jersey board
of agriculture be accepted as trust
worthy. 1t is certainly explicit. Mr.. Lee,
who submitted the report, showed that
the town of Woodbine, under Superin-
tendent Jabsovitch of the fund, consists
of 1916 lots, around which are thirty
acre farms, and the outlaying lowlands
are reserved for pasturage, upon the
plan of medieval English communities.
In a year $50 acres of farm land, twelve
miles of driveway, and ITO acres Of
town lots have been wrested from a
natural wilderness. The town houses
built by the company composed of the
trustees of the American Hirsch fund.-
cost from $3.50 to 81, 800 each, and are
models of neatness and adaptability for
colonists' need. Active work is expect
ed to give Woodbine $50 houses by
spring. A hotel, a railway station, a
synagogue, and public school are COM
pleted, or are in course of erection. A
park has been laid out, with side
streets and avenues lined with poplars
and naples. On the farms each agri-
culturist has $50 fruit trees, planted in
1891, with an acre of grapes and small
fruits. Early vegetables, growing as
readily in Cape May as in Norfolk, were
also successfully raised.
This is certainly an encouraging
showing, and if, as Mr.. Lee declares in
his report, the soil of South Jersey gen
orally is susceptible of such improved
cultivation, the hopes of the trustees OF
the Hirsch fund may be realized, more
especially if, as is stated, the asricul-
tural conditions of South Jersey much
resemble those found in that part Of
Russia from which most of these colo
nists come. At the same time it appears
that, great as has been the progress
made in farming in the South Jersey
colony, it has not kept pace with other
pursuits less carefully fostered-cloall-
making, knitting, and cigarmaking. It
was the fear of such preference for
mercantile and manual pursuits and
the consequent neglect of farming
which led many to doubt at the outset
the success of the Hirsch experiment.
Their apprehensions, even according to
Mr.. Lees encouraging report, do not
seem to have been entirely groundless;
out it is probably too soon to determine
definitely whether this natural prefer
ence of the colonists will initiate seri-
ously against the success of the South
Jersey colony. Meanwhile no one ap-
pears to be starving; quite the reverse