The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-08-05
GEWF

meaning missionary bent on transferring
her and her children to an unpo pulated
country place.
This assumption. it turns out, was quite
~unfounded, 20 naturally the prophecies
referred to have failed.
Only seventeen of the applicants for plots
Of ground have to date made good their ex-
pressed intention of tenting on the farm,
and these include several persons to whom
the experience Of camping Ia not at all new
and who have never undergone the excite
ment of living in a crowded East or West
Side district of Manhattan. And 80 far
none of the mi has intimated an
intention Of leaving the farm before the end
of the summer. Several, on the contrary,
declare that they mean to stay where they
are till cold weather drives them away. %!
There are a school teacher and her sister.
whose camp of two small tents represents
tho maximum of style and comfort at the
settlement and who must abandon farm life
when the public. schools open, but the other
tenters are families, the kagth of whose
stay depends only on PERSONAL inclination
or the time the man Of the household is will
ing to be a oolnrrutor for there are only two
men among the campers not regularly
employed, and there are several whose work
keeps them away from their families from
noon till midnight.
As for the other eighty-three benefciaries
OF the farm settlement, most Of whom spend
only a day or two every week there. cult
waiting their half acre or so, and some OF
whom are comfortably of, the majority
will probably continue their regular waits
till the winter potatoes and late corn are
harvested, only a very small percentage
having failed to work the ground Tor all it
Is worth
Exactly what the sentiments Of these
persons are respecting the returns OF their
farming may never be known, but it is easy
enough to learn the opinion of the campers
at the settlement on the subject. Question
o man on the topic and he gets enthusiastic
at once as to the pleasure and profit of life
on the farm, to say nothing OF its health
fulness and the ease with which even women
and children, almost unaided. can cause
suoculent beans, tender corn n mealy
potatoes to spring from the soil. A visit
TO the farm will disabuse any u~nprejudiced
mind OF the idea that farming is hard.
sYou Just put a spade down like that
said a CHEEKY Irlsh-American woman, suit
ing the action to the word. then turn over
tn6 oaItn boi uOP III sou poS~So'
cover 1t over and before you know 1t the
thing is sprouting through the earth
This explanation was made to a stranger,
q m fond of camp life. who, with some
misgivings as to her reception, took a stroll
through the settlement, bent on getting data
about tenting and cooperative farming
at first hand. 1t was midday aud one
Of the tenters was on dress parade.
yynpoap waro oatfin0 tina Nom Inaal.
older children we're busy carrying water
from the spring and minding smaller
brothers and sisters and the men, whose
working shift is from early afternoon till
midnight, sat waiting for their dinner. AS
she proceeded the visitors misgivings
vanished. She was received with cor
diality by the campers, whole families
with alacrity turning themselves into a
bureau OF information as to the best place
to pitch a tent, the best sort Of vegetables
to plant, the immunity Of the farm from
predatory animals. two and fou legged. and
the healthy appetite and sound sleep await
ing a tent dweller in that particular farm
settlement.
Talk about your Adirondacks and your
White Mountains said a father Of six
children, the oldest Of whom Is 10. There's
q man with his wife and two children over
In that tent who when he came here last
May was 80 weak he couldn't carry q small
hand satchel.
Said /, when I saw him, He looks more
at for a hospital than for camping out and
farming Now he can work hours every
day on his patch Of ground N he begins
to look rugged and hearty.
This air, says he to me the other day,
beats any / ever tried, and I have been
over a good bit Of this country"
During her tour the visitor came to the
. conclusion that nothing disagreeabls had
: ever happened at the farm, for the reason
that not a tenter had anything disagreeabIe
to relate. The nearest approach to a com-
plant came from the women. who regretted
that the pump and spring ware 20. Gar away
--.a-- - --------. ----.. 49, -.-.- -