The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1934-04-27
SUBSISTENCE FARMS


industry and starting the part-time
worker ON part-time farming are
rapidly taking shape. These three
score projects which will involve an
expenditure of $1O,0O0,O00 ara more
Familiarity known by the term of sub
sistence homesteads. The firs5 of
these located near Dayton, Ohic, is
already finished and others are being
rushed to completion.
In general the plan calls for gov
eminent purchase of large tract OF
land (around 1000 acres) which is
divided into small plots where sim
pie type houses may be erected.
These houses are to be built usually
by the owners and are to be aid for
on an easy installment plan over
period of 20 years. Where needed,
community buildings, churches,
schools, etc, may be built. Each
plot has two or more acres to be
used in the cultivation OF vegetables
and other foodstuffs. By thus pro-
yiding some of his necessities at
home the worker who is irregularly
employed can use the cash he earns
at his job for other supplies which
ordinarily would be denied him.
To carry out the plan total sum
of S25,0OO,0OO was appropriated by
Congress. Secretary of the Interior
Ickes, in outlining the plan, stressed
the fact that this was ga permanent,
not an emergency project" Attic
each of the subsistence homestead
schemes are essentially the same,
certain variation to suit the particu-
lar needs of each locality was found
necessary in the initial planning.
In some the growing of fruits and
vegetables will be stressed; in 9TH
ers, poultry; and in third type,
cows and other livestock will be
brought on the scene.
Subsistence farming has been
practiced for many years, but only
now is it gaining government recog-
milton. For something over so
years two communities operated
along these general lipes have been
prospecting in West Virginia, the first
of which is the Englehart weaving
mill-a factory and garden type
and the second the community farms
of Helvetia.
At Dayton 35 homesteads have
been established with two and three
acres in each plot. A committee
selected the settlers from a large ap-
plication list, choosing men of
wide variety of trades to cover all
the needs of the community. Those
taken into the group were all MEM
bers of the low income class and
most of them were unemployed.
A project similar to the Dayton
one is under way at Decatur, Ind,
both of these representing a move
toward the decentralization of in
dustry in the two towns. In Penn
sylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky,
Tennessee and Iowa unemployed
miners are being placed on subsis-
tence farms. A group of jobless
lumberjacks in West Virginia are to
be transported to the Monongahela
National Forest to found ccmmun-
ity and perform extra work there.
At Birmingham, Ala, four cemmuni-
ties of steel workers are to be set up,
and in northern Wisconsin group
bent on a forest-farm resettlement
program is located. Rochester, N.
Y, and Wilmington, Del, have their
garden type of subsistence home
steads, and in Mississippi, Texas,
Tennessee and North Carolina other
groups are forming.
The program in Monmouth coun-
ty, N. j., near Hightstown, was de-
signed to give homestead opportuni-
ties to about 200 Jewish needle
workers taken from the slums of
New Yorks East Side. They will
carry on their work as before, and
will have the added advantage of
lettering their standard of living.
For the impoverished farmers of
section of Georgia plan was work
ed out to move them of their soil
eroded lands to more fertile spots
where they would have greater eco
monte opportunities and at the same
time derive the benefits of commun-
ity life. The tracts abandoned In
this program will be reforested.