The Opelousas courier., 1905-06-24
JEWS In AGRICULTURE.
MORE THAN 1000 HEBREWS OWN
AND WORK FARMS.

Abandoned Acres"-Facts Brought
Out by Lecture before Students of
Jewish Theological Seminary.
Although many centuries have
passed since the Jews, as a nation,
lost Palestine, and with it their agri-
cultural life, still the lapse of so
many years has not entirely eradicat-
ed from the Jewish mind the desire
for tilling the soil. To that large ma.
jority of people who are accustomed
to consider the industrial trades and
mercantile pursuits as the only activi-
ties for the Hebrews Of this country,
it may come as a suIa&sise to learn
that there are at prese@in the Unit
ed States W. 1900 Jewish farmers,
men with families, representing more
than 10000 persons, N$o are profit
ably engaged in tilling american soil.
This was brought fslt by Cyrus
l.. Sulzberger, presiden8 of the Jew
ish Agricultural and itdustrial AID
Society, in a recent lectt@!SSe before the
students of the JEWISH Theological
Seminary on "Agricu''N al and Re-
moval Work" This lectL was the
third in a course on practical philan-
thropy arranged for the students in
order to %acquaint them with the va
rious kinds of communal work, which
will come within their province when
they have been graduated as rabbis
and have become leaders in congre-
gational life.
Prior to the formation of the Jew
ish Agricultural and Aid Society five
! years ago the work it is now doing
was done by the trustees of the
Baron de Hirsch Fund. The object
of the society is to relieve the con
g~estion in the Jewish quarters of
large cities, particularly New York
and Chicago, toward which cities Jew
ish immigration is mainly directed.
Two methods are being tried by the
organization to accomplish its OBJ
ject; one is, to encourage, by means
of subsidies, various industries in
country towns; and the other is to
get the immigrants to take up farm
ing for their livelihood. The second
has thus far proved the more success
full of the two. Loans are made to
farmers and to prospective farmers.
The matter is a purely business pro-
position, and the society requires the
amounts loaned to be repaid in in
stalments together with interest at
4 per cent-a low rate in comparison
to the II per cent charged to farmers
in the northwestern part Of the Il
try. There is no hint of charity, nor
is there any pauperiZation of the So
ciety's beneficiaries. In the vast ma
jority of cases money is loaned only
to those who have already saved a
few hundred dollars, which, together
with the sum loaned by the society,
they will spend in buying a farm.
Once having acquired the farm, they
will stick to it and make it profitable,
particularly since they feel that their
own savings are bound up in the pro-
ject.
Three hundred and thirty-four Jew
ish farmers, representing 1903 per-
sons all told, have taken up some OF
the abandoned" farms of New Eng
land, and through sheer pluck, per-
sistence, and industry, have made
them profitable. Naturally, these
farms are at some distances from
each other; nevertheless, the reii-
gious life is not neglected, and neigh
boring farmers regularly meet at the
house of one of their number to hold
services. The society mas helped very
many families to settle on farms in
small towns all over the country, and
during the few years of its existence
it has made loans to the amount of
1851, 600, the average single loan be-
ing $500. Thus far there has been
paid back $5S,000, and $4,000 inter-
est. During the last year $50 loans
were made.
The new project of the Agricultural
and Aid Society is the establishing OF
so-called farming factories" The or
ganization has bought a large farm
in Long Island, where houses are be-
ing erected, and men who desire to
do farm work will be taught the prac-
teal side of the work and paid days
wages for their labor. When they
nave learned enough to be able to
handle all the necessary implements
and to be good practical farmers, the
society will loan them money enough,
on the usual condition, to buy farms
of their own. A similar plan has
been begun in Wisconsin by the Mil
waukee Agricultural Association, a
branch of the Agricultural and Md
Society here.
The work that is being done by the
Industrial Removal Society is SINH
lar, It sends newly arrived Jewish
immigrants to one of the cities where
there is a Jewish community. Here
the salaried agent of the committee
proceeds to find employment for the
new arrivals in any n of a number
of industries. In the short time OF
the s~ociety's existence it has sent
| 10000 Jews from New York, distri-
buting them in every State in the
Union, with the exception of Nevada,
and very few of them nave ever re-
turned.-New York Post.
- g 80