The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1897-04-09
MONKS ARE GOOD FARMERS.
The Trappists Are the Most Successful
in

Undoubtedly the most successful
farmers in Canada are Trappist monks,
says a Montreal letter in the Provi-
dence Journal. At Tracadie in the east,
at Okla in Quebec and at St. Norbert
on the Red river, in the west, they
have changed unpromising tracts of
land into fertile farms. To the latest
OF their settlements-that at st. Nor
bert-I paid a visit recently during a
brief holiday trip out west. This great
farm is an object lesson that would
severance and industry can do with
vast regions of untitled or semi-tilled
loan lands out there.
Three years ago, / learned, a little
company of Trappist brothers came out
to Canada from France and built a
monastery on a farm of $500 acres that
nad Deen presented. to them by a priest
named Richot, who had taken a leading
part IN the efforts that for years had
been made to settle our great west.
Immediately upon their arrival they
set to work IN the ground. They
cleared it OF it's scrub, laid out a gar
den and began what is called ''break-
ing. What progress has been made
since then may be judged i II the fact
that this year they will harvest 10000
bushels of grain. And their garden is
a sight worth seeing, with the marvel
u abundance and variety of vege-
tables, enough, apparently, to support
a good-sized town. For cattle and for
horses they have put up stables of the
most approved modern type. They
nave a creamery, a hennery, with hun
dreds OF fowls, a piggery of what is
said to be the proper kind" and they
are building a large granary. The faith
er superior, who is a French gentleman
OF distinguished family, was working
IN the garden. He saluted us politely
and told us to make ourselves at
home. We were afterward told that he
is the humblest and the hardest work
ing OF all the brethren. 1t is we'll known
that the rules of the order of La 'Trappe
are OF the strictest kind. They are,
however, somewhat modified in Cana
da. Here the daily life of a clerical
member of the order is regulated as
follows: Six hours, from $3.50 p. m. to
2:3O a. NJ, for sleep; six hours for de-
votions; six hours for manual labor.
and six hours for the reading room and
Tor private work. The lay members of
the order give eight to ten hours to
manual labor. No Trappist, clerical or
lay, is permitted to eat fish or flesh
food. All are strict vegetarians. Yet
they all appear to be physically strong,
clear-eyed and clean-limbed. There
are fifteen members in the monastery
at present-twelve French and three
Canadians. The work of the whole
establishment is done with military
precision, without the slightest appear
ance of stiffness or restraint. There is
implicit obedience, but, as it is based
on religion, it has all the appearance
of freedom. They sleep on plank beds
in narrow cells and never speak to Wis.,
itors, nor, for that matter, to each 9TH
er. The father superior and the guest
master do what talking there is to be
done. Their conversation is confined
to a salutation, which they exclaim
when passing each other and which is
Mon frere, il faut mourir!" ('Broth-
err, we must die!') When a brother dies
he is buried in the orders c%hurchyard
and a rude piece of wood bearing his
Christian name merely is placed at the
head of the grave. The Trappist is
truly the man who, the world forget.
ting, is "by the world forgot"