CHAPTER VIII.

SOUTH GLASTONBURY, CONN. NORTH ITALIAN FRUIT

GROWERS.

INTRODUCTION.

South Glastonbury is situated on the east side of the Connecticut River, in Hartford County, about 9 miles south of Hartford. electric car line connects Hartford with South Glastonbury, the cars running every half hour during the day, the average running time being forty-five minutes. The Italians are scattered over a wide area, but the largest settlement is 3 miles east of the end of the car line, in South Glastonbury, on the road leading over Matson Hill. There the Italians have taken the rough uncultivated land abandoned by the Americans, made it productive, and established a community that is well known throughout Connecticut.

When land in the immediate vicinity of Matson Hill became scarce the Italians began to settle on the vacant farms in the neighboring towns. Some settled in Portland and a few purchased land in Bolton, 10 miles from the center of the settlement, so that there are now in that neighborhood, within a radius of 5 miles, over 60 farms owned by the Italians. In South Glastonbury alone there are 50 farms; the remainder are located in the surrounding towns. There are 250 North Italians living on farms in the vicinity of South Glastonbury, the majority of whom have been in the United States from five to nine years. Only 14 per cent of them have been in this country over fifteen years.

Over 50 of the Italians own their farms, from 8 to 200 acres in size, the general average being less than 80 acres. However, one Italian is the largest individual landowner in the county and possibly in the State, owning over 2,700 acres. Four of the Italians rent farms, but they are working at other occupations in the locality rather than devoting their whole time to agriculture.

The farms purchased by the Italians have been for the most part those abandoned by the Americans. The Italians have cleared part of the land of timber and brush, setting out peach orchards in the place of forest growth. Near their houses they have cleared an acre or more and set out strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries; moreover they have planted several good vineyards. The peaches and small fruits are sold to commission men in Hartford, and the grapes are crushed to make sour wine, chiefly for home consumption. During the investigation all the families were visited and schedules were obtained from 26 representative families. The results as shown. by the tables are for this number. These 26 families are typical, and the tables apply very well to the entire number.

HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT.

In the year 1892 an Italian named Bartholomew Carini came to South Glastonbury seeking employment. It was winter and the only available occupation was chopping cordwood or hewing chestnut

trees into railroad ties. After two years of this work he had saved enough money to send to Italy for his wife and son, and during the same year he purchased his first farm. His brother came about that time from Chester, Conn., where he had been cutting timber, and bought a farm of a hundred acres. Since this small beginning, the rest of the Italians have come in, either from the lumber camps or from New York City, after friends had written to them of the possibilities of agriculture. No direct effort has been made to secure the Italians, they have simply "drifted in" and joined their friends and relatives. Many of the early settlers used to write to their Italian relatives to come over and help them with their farm work. Soon these newcomers were in a position to buy small farms, when they in turn would write for their friends. In this way the colony, or rather settlement, has grown from the start. Where a colony grows in this way, by little groups that come each year and work in the neighborhood a few years before they buy land, acquiring a knowledge of the ways and customs of the locality in the meantime, the establishment of the foreign community is usually more firm and stable than where a large number of foreigners come in during a single year, buy land, and take up independent agriculture at once.

Some of the Italians had saved enough money to pay cash for the land they first purchased, but for the most part they have bought on time and the terms of payment have varied in nearly every case. Many times prosperous Italians in the neighborhood have loaned to their friends enough money to buy a farm for cash, the borrower to pay back the money as soon as possible. In this way the purchasers saved the interest they would have paid had they borrowed money from the bank. When they deal with each other, the contracts are usually verbal, but very few difficulties arise out of this careless method of doing business.

From the following statement it is seen that the Italians brought very little property with them, 42 per cent having less than $500 in their possession, and for this reason many of them were obliged to secure outside employment until they had saved enough to make a first payment on their property.

Some of them worked as farm laborers for a few years; others went into the woods and earned money chopping cordwood or hewing railroad ties, earning from $1.25 to $1.50 per day. The majority of those who were unable to buy worked in this way less than three years, or leased property upon arrival, and then purchased real estate.

The Italians are from northern Italy and chiefly from the Compartimenti of Liguria, Piedmont, and Lombardy. They have a strong prejudice against the Sicilians and Neapolitans, and at one time when a Sicilian tried to settle in their midst they made it so unpleasant for him that he soon moved away. In the old country many of the men were employed on the farms as laborers, a few were farming for themselves, and some were at home on their fathers' farms.

Many came direct to this locality from Italy, but more than twothirds came first to New York and other eastern cities, securing work

for two or three years in order to tocan even mont to purchase land. In New York some of these presuar tarmen employed as waiters in the fashionatur residus deS engaged in the kitchens and pantries of these ISTLUSI MELIS ADE many found work in various tasklled onettabits soout the ete. The land purchased by the gas VR the poorest in SA Glastonbury. The soil was barren and creed with brush, an before the Italians could derive a living from in si of the lant de signed for cultivation had to be cleared. Fan of each year. S cially during the winter, the Italians continuin voit FOR earning a little extra money by chopping word wood LAUR FOLDE was experienced in earning a livenfood during the many reas for this outside work provided them with the mon

This settlement has grown in seventeen years inc

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to 60 at the present date (1909), and in all numbers Hay 2 persen Many Italians take boarders, laboring men who work in the neighborhood. These laborers are single men and constitute the migratory element in the population.

Land has increased in value, and nearly all the available “abandoned " farms have been purchased by Italians; but in the course of time more land will be available, as ümber is being cut from large areas every year, and this land in turn sold for farms. Some of the Italians who own large tracts are selling part of their farms to their fellow-countrymen, and in that way are making room for the Italians who are constantly arriving. The more recent arrivals profit by the failures of their neighbors and make a better living than those that started fifteen years ago. During the year 1909, 3 new families moved into the neighborhood, purchased farms, and built small houses.

Of the 22 Italians that first purchased land 18 bought farms with less than one-fourth of their areas tillable; this means that threefourths or more of the land bought was covered with stones, brush, or woods. Of the 4 who rented farms, 3 rented places between 20 and 120 acres in extent, less than 25 per cent tillable.

TABLE 39.-Condition of land and size of farms first rented or purchased by North Italians, South Glastonbury, Conn.

Six of the farms first purchased averaged 52 acres, for which the average price paid was $13 per acre, and the average cash payment was $317. Fourteen of the farms averaged 75 acres, purchased at an average price of $17 per acre. The cash payment on these was $920 per farm.

SOIL.

The land along the banks of the Connecticut River is low, level, and very fertile, but the areas settled by the Italians lie away from the river, situated on the high rounded hills and low mountains which form the boundaries of the valley. These hills and mountains consist of comparatively rugged ridges, stony peaks, and narrow rockwalled ravines. While some of the hilltops are comparatively flat, bare-rock ledges are numerous, and some of the hills on which cultivation was begun had to be adandoned, because of the washing away of the loose top soil by the heavy spring rains.

Some of the hills and valleys are covered with a second growth of chestnut and oak, but in most places the third or fourth cutting has been made. The deserted fields and pastures are covered with certain species of wild shrubs, and in this condition are practically useless. On the farms owned by the Italians, the soils belong chiefly to three types, which are described in a report of the United States Bureau of Soils, as follows: "

"The Triassic stony loam is a reddish to red-brown silty loam, with a depth of 14 inches, resting on a medium heavy sandy loam of reddish color 3 feet deep. Both soil and subsoil contain large numbers of angular bowlders of all sizes, up to several feet in diameter. It is best adapted to the growth of grains and small fruits, and is well adapted to pasture lands.

races.

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"The Manchester sandy loam consists of a reddish or dark-yellow, medium-grade, sandy and gravelly loam from 8 to 18 inches deep. underlain by loamy sand and gravel. The surface of the Manchester loam is rolling. It is generally composed of low ridges and knolls, although in a few places the type forms low flat terThe soil is naturally fertile, but the porous nature of the subsoil makes it easily subject to drought. ** * It is an especially good soil for peaches, and other fruits succeed well. The soil of the Holyoke stony loam is a dark-yellow or brown-silty loam from 7 to 12 inches deep. The type is very stony throughout, and contains pebbles and bowlders of angular shape varying in size from less than an inch to several feet in diameter. In places these almost cover the surface. In many areas the bowlders and ledges are so abundant and the slopes so steep that they are valueless for cultivation. The soil is in general of moderate fertility. Fruits of all kinds suited to the region thrive, and a considerable quantity of apples is produced."

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a United States Department of Agriculture. Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils, 1903 (Fifth Report), pp. 44-50.

The rainfall is usually plentiful during the growing season, and the relative humidity during June, July, and August is about 70 per went The locality is subject to killing frosts during the spring and does sionally they come so late that the peach buds are blighted. Quite In the often the severity of the winter kills many of the peach trees. "Handbook of Connecticut Agriculture" published in 1901, Ju Hale, South Glastonbury, Conn., states that during the proceding twenty years there has been produced in this locality ten full eropa of fruit, three fairly good ones, three partial ones, and four almost total failures.'

AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS.

The real estate owned by the Italians varies from a 2 nere house lot to a maximum holding by one individual of over 2,700 acres The farms range from 8 to 200 acres in extent, but the majority of theam contain between 40 and 80 acres.

• Summary of the Climatological Data for the United States, wezhion W nearest station is Hartford, a distance of 33 miles, Colchester in the low Asth