The Denver Jewish news., 1923-04-25
u, 900 JEWISH FARMERS IN
THE UNITED STATES.
IL c. d. Seryicel

according to the report OF Gabriel
Davidson, general manager of the
Jewish Agricultural society, an
agency Of the Baron de Hirsch foun-
dation just made public.
This figure represents the total
number of Jews living on and making
their livelihood from American farms.
The total farm acreage owned by
Jews in 1900 was 1000, whereas now
there are over 100000 acres
farmed by Jews. The total value of
the farms is estimated at not less than
500, 10000 The growth represents
almost a complete gain since the year
1900. At that time only PIG families
representing a Jewish population of
between 300 and 900 persons were
engaged in farming. The rapid
growth of farmers has been pleas
ant surprise even to the Jewish Agri-
curtural society, according to Mr..
Davidson and disproves the contention
that Jews can not make good in agri
culture.
The majority of the Jewish farm
ers are to be found in the tier of states
embrasing New York, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.
Many of the Jewish farmers in New
York also turn their homes into sum-
mer boarding houses for the summer
months, says Mr.. Davidson, but they
are bona fide farmers nevertheless,
their farms averaging up to stand
ard as high as that of their nom
Jewish neighbors.
In Connecticut, Jewish farmers
have made signal success at tobacco
raising. In New Jersey, number OF
them have met with exceptional sue
cess at potato growing, but according
to the report, perhaps poultry raising
has been the forte Of the Jews. At
the Sullivan county New York; a
Jewish farmer carried off the first
prize in poultry.
The growth OF agriculture among
Jews is further shown" says Mr..
Davidson, by the appearance during
the past years of two textbooks on
agricultural subjects written in. Yid-
dish.
"The agricultural profession, as dis
tinguished from the business of farm
ing, includes some eminent Jewish
scientists, such men as DIR. Jacob G.
Lipman, the dean of the New York
Agricultural Experiment station; his
brother, DR.. Charles B. Lipman, pro-
fessor Of soil physics in the California
Agricultural college; DR.. J. j.. Tau
benhaus, plant pathologist in the
Texas Agricultural college; Joseph A.
Rosen, formerly superintendent of the
Woodbine Agricultural school, who in
troduced "Rosen Rye" into this coun-
try; Extra Levine, plant pathologist
and much specialist in the Michigan
State Department of Agriculture-all
men who rank among the foremost of
American agriculturists."
"The Jew fresh from the city has
no backgrounr Of farming, coming as
he goes, principally from countries
which have barred Jews from owning
laHu, says uAIs Ddvl0oOh. ASb ehS
so-called inadaptability of the Jew to
farming is largely imaginary. Some
of the Jewish dietary and religious
laws such as those relating to the
necessity of Kosher meat make it
hard on the conforming Jew to live in
the isolation so frequently character
istic of the farmer" Mr.. Davidson
declares, but these difficulties are not
insuperable."
The Council of Jewish Women has
helped to brighten the path Of the
Jewish farmwife by organizing the
farm women into clubs. Young folks
leagues, parents teachers associations
and domestic science clubs have beer
organized.
Notable progress has been made
particularly in the sanitation work or
the farms. A report of the New
York State Department of Health
some years ago bitterly condemned
the sanitary conditions of the Jewish
farmers in the Ulster-Sullivan dis.
tricts. The change that has taker
place in the interim principally
through the efforts of sanitation bur.
eau of the Jewish Agricultural society
which is under the direction of DR.
Edward Goodwin, is shown by a re.
Lcent issue of the State Board OF
Health News, containing glowing
account of the conditions prevailing
now.
Health posters, exhibits of the lat
est sanitary devices lectures on ny
giene and sanitation have combined
to convert what were probably the
worst farms in New York from the