The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1911-09-20
GIVING AWAY LAND
Farms. Orchards, ETC., to be
Distributed in New York
In November

One of the most interesting expert
ments made on the New York public
in years will take place at Madison
Square Garden next November-the
giving away Of farms. orchards, pecan
groves and irrigated tracts at the
American Land and Irrigation Expo
sition. The attendance or neglect of
the public will go far to demonstrate
whether the back-to-the-land move
ment is sincere. Everyone is familiar
with the urban lover of bucolic life
who sits in his or her fiat or studio
and yearns audibly for the country
greenside, sunrises and sunsets, eggs
and the peace and quiet which the
city knows not. Time after time
these urban enthusiasts compromise
by few weeks in the country to COM
plete a task in hand; and, still imbued
with the city's feverish pace, rush
back to comfortable baths and cleo
trio lights, their task uncompleted. A
few night sessions at the familiar
desk or table, surrounded by the city s
roar and stimulus, corrects this omis-
sion; and once again the yearning for
bucolic calm arises. The fallacy
probably lies in the attempt to do es-
sentially city jobs in country sur
roundings which one has not had time
to make ones own and adorn with
tanned. The free distribution Of
country existences will answer the
question whether any of the urban
dreamers are really prepared to take
the decisive step.
A bargain sale at great depart
ment store throngs its aisles with
myriads of women. Elemental af-
fairs like the recent boxing contests
fill Madison Square Garden to its
limit, and cause the calling out of the
police reserves. Will this free distri-
button of land, devised as an attrac-
ton at the American Land and Irri-
cation Exposition, November to IL.
induce any of the men and women
who long for green fields at their
dusty desks to desert the dusty desks
for the chance which is presented to
them?
The New York public is character
istically suspicious of anything that is
distributed free Of cost, and the Civ
ing away of farms at REIMBURSEMENT
street and Madison avenue is as
startling an innovation as the stalking
out of a mining claim in Madison
Square, proceeding which lawyers
assure one would be perfectly legal
If a mine were really discovered But
the New YORK public is also discern
ing, and once it realizes that The Of
fer on the part of the various rail
rOduS anu COIlIASISIe.i lil1sldlSS IL d
bona fide attempt to coionile their
territories and stimulate the produc-
ton of the crops in which they are
interested by giving away something
of real value and lending their CO.
operation to it's improvement and de-
velopment, they may flock to the free
distribution. If the event were the
opening of Government lands for the
public to stake out homesteads in the
West, there is no doubt about what
the Western public would do.
The method of distribution by pop
ular allotment may possibly furnish
some elements of excitement. When
free baths were opened some years
ago in Seward Park, the East Side
public, on being assured that the
baths were it's property, promptly re-
moved all the hardware, sold it for
junk, and left a pile of recumbent
marble slabs as a memento of their
first visit. Will those fortunate
enough to be the recipients of the Ii ee
aIlotments of land treat them in some
similar fashion? The directors of the
Exposition are confident that the con-
centration of population in the great
cities with their multitudes of OPEN
ings for work is due partly to ignor-
ance and partly to fear With the
way to pure air, better health and
more profitable occupation explained
and simplified, they are confident that
the Exposition, which it is intended