When the Italians came to this locality the hills were covered with brush and timber. After clearing a site for the house they proceeded to clear the land for their orchards and a space on which to raise vegetables for their own use. Occasionally when they raise a large crop of any one vegetable they market it in Hartford. The soil is not well adapted to the raising of garden truck on a large scale, but tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, corn, and peppers are grown in limited. quantities. Near the house one generally finds an acre or more of grapes trained along wooden trellises. Only the best grapes are sold, over 90 per cent of the quantity raised being made into strong sour wine, to be used by the Italians themselves. As a grower of strawberries the Italian has few equals; the area given over to the crop is small, but the Italians are often able to obtain a fair return from that crop alone. The berries are sold in quart baskets, and the commission merchants in Hartford handle all that are sold. The "Glen Mary" variety is the one chiefly raised. No regular system is employed in cultivation except that all the farmers use straw to cover and protect their plants during the winter. the strawberry plots are rows of raspberries and blackberries. These berries are also sold by the box and are handled by the Hartford wholesale merchants. Near On most of the farms enough hay and corn are raised each year to feed the cattle and horses during the winter months; the farms are generally large enough to allow the cattle abundance of spring and summer pasture. Beside the Connecticut River and along the car line from Hartford to South Glastonbury large quantities of tobacco are grown by the Americans. But one of the Italians raises tobacco, for as yet none of them have settled outside of the fruit area around Matson Hill. Although these Italian settlers did not introduce fruit growing into Connecticut, they have introduced it into the stony section of South Glastonbury Township. Peaches were planted in Connecticut as early as 1875, but it was ten or twelve years later before the trees produced commercially. When the Italians came, they quickly began clearing away the bowlders and small rocks and set out early varieties of peach trees. Although the peach will bear the third year from planting, good crops are not to be expected for five or six years. Therefore the Italians planted near their houses beds of strawberries and rows of blackberries and raspberries. The Italian attends constantly and carefully to his fruit trees, plows them every spring and fall, and practices low-heading to keep the fruit near the ground, so that the crops may be harvested at a minimum expense. All the Italians have spraying machinery of their own, the barrel hand pump being used almost entirely. Until 1909 the regulation lime sulphur mixture was employed, but this was found to be troublesome to the small grower. Hence a compound of lime and sulphur which does away with boiling the mixture is now being used. Some of the Italians use a cover crop and others do not; crimson clover and soy beans are used chiefly. Mr. J. H. Hale, the noted peach grower, has a large fruit farm near this locality and the "king" of Italian landowners, B. Carini, has over a hundred acres in fruit; the rest of the Italians carefully observe the methods of these two men and imitate them closely. Several sorts of peaches are grown by the Italians, both very early, medium, and late varieties. In this way they are able to sell fruit during the whole season. The Elberta, Wardell, and Champion are the three principal varieties found on the Italian farms. The following table shows the amounts of produce raised by the 24 Italian farmers from whom schedules were secured by the Commission, and the quantity and value sold per farm. TABLE 40.--Classification of farms, by values of specified farm products produced and sold, North Italian farmers, South Glastonbury, Conn. During the latter years of the last century in the vicinity of South Glastonbury there were many abandoned farms with neglected and decaying buildings, many of them originally very substantial structures. This condition was not due entirely to soil exhaustion, but to the distance from railroads, poor wagon roads, and the very stony character of the soil. Times have changed since 1900. Farms that then sold for $5 and $10 per acre are now worth from $30 to $50; the decaying farm buildings have been rebuilt and modern barns and outhouses have taken their places; roads have been improved, and a rural free delivery route passes through the locality, starting from the post-office at South Glastonbury. Much of the improvement is due to the foreigner. The Italians have bought many of the abandoned farms, patched up the barns, and in many cases built new ones. On most of the farms new houses have been erected, not as large as the original New England farmhouse, but substantial, two-story frame buildings, containing four to ten rooms. Many of these houses have only the first floor finished, and the owners are waiting for more money before they complete the second story. The houses for the most part are well built, clapboarded, and neatly painted, with sheet iron or shingled roofs. Most of the farms contained a sufficient acreage of wood and timber to bring in a good income from their forest products alone. When Italians cut the wood and brush from the fields, they use the smallest The sticks for fuel, chop the next larger into 4-foot lengths to sell for cord wood, make fence posts out of some, and cut the largest logs into 10 or 12 foot lengths to be hauled to the sawmill in the winter and sawed into boards, with which to build additions to barns and houses. None of the wood is wasted and between lumbering and peach growing the newcomer finds work on his farm the whole year round. Italian has built wire fences, inclosing all his property, and has usually divided his land into two portions, the smaller for his orchard and the rest for cow pasture. Near the house the Italians, as a rule, have a portion fenced off for a yard and garden. In general, these yards are clean, but very unkempt, and various farm implements that have been kept for months under the open sky lie scattered about. MARKETS AND MARKETING FACILITIES. This Italian settlement is in the open country, and nearly all the produce is hauled over wagon roads to Hartford, the nearest market. The length of the haul varies from 10 to 18 miles, depending on the location of the farms. Beyond Glastonbury the country roads are poor, full of stones and ruts, and many sharp grades are encountered. As soon as the main road from Glastonbury to Hartford is reached the hauling is much easier, over a well-graded, macadamized state road, built of crushed rock and rolled hard. The railroad point nearest to South Glastonbury is Rocky Hill. This station is across the Connecticut River and is 1 miles from the South Glastonbury post-office. The nearest Italian farm is 24 miles from the post-office, and the majority of the farms are from 3 to 6 miles away. When these distances are taken into consideration, it is about as near and as cheap for the Italians to haul all their crops to Hartford. Hartford has excellent railroad facilities, also good wholesale markets, and it is here that the Italians sell most of their fruits. Sometimes the grower sells his crop outright, and at other times he leaves the produce for the produce dealer to sell on commission. Hartford has a population of nearly 100,000, hence the local demand for fruit must be large-sufficient to enable the farmers to dispose of all the crops raised. Sometimes when one of the Italians has a large quantity of fruit to sell he may send a carload direct to commission men in a distant city. Ordinarily all fruit is disposed of in Hartford. The peaches are sold in half-bushel or bushel baskets, and the strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries are placed in quart baskets and sold to the wholesaler by the crate. In the spring of 1909 the Italians formed a cooperative union to market their produce and to buy cooperatively their fertilizers, baskets, crates, and other supplies needed on the farm. The organization is called the North Italy Fruit Growers' Union of Connecticut, and it was thought that the society would help the growers to sell their crops at a higher price. The spraying mixtures for use in 1910 were bought through the Union at wholesale rates, which means a material saving over small individual purchases. The Union is only in its infancy, and a perfect organization has not been developed. It is practically a club, organized with officers and a committee to do the buying; but as yet the Italians have not worked out cooperative selling plans. In the vicinity of Matson E and aromat an easy matter to see that thSTPCROSITE IS SPONS these off. Nine of the farms report moettelbess stetigns $1.38 per farm. Many of the Italians have invested the the barns, and sheds. In only a few bostadres 2. they dry on the 202 farmhouses, having built new ones their earnings in additional land, either cleaning in se bilang it as an investment. This land, e verd with poe sprite, or desmal s very desirable property. Wollan is Direase rapor — Tale sze demand for wood and timber in Connectirnt is very great. Many of the wood lots are covered with good-sized chestnut sprouts. are cut up into ties and telegraph poles, and the locality has liñ culty in supplying the demands made upon it by the railroad and telephone companies that have their offés near at hand. By holding their land, both farm land and wood land, the Italians are able to realize a fairly remunerative rate of interest on the money invested. The Italian demand for farms in the hilly region of Connecticut has caused the price of land to increase almost twofold, and the present tendency is toward still higher values. Property is assessed in these townships at less than 80 per cent of its real value, and in many cases values are even less than 60 per cent, considering the age of the fruit trees on the orchard tracts assessed. All peach trees that have been set out in the locality are young, and each year brings an increase in land values as well as an increase in the amount of fruit produced. The general financial condition of 26 Italian farmers included in the Commission's inquiry is shown in the following summary: Farms leased and owned: Total farms... Average size of farm (acres). Median farm (acres). Kind of farms, fruit.. Farms now leased... Total number of acres.. Number of acres cultivated. Number of acres not cultivated.. First purchase of land and improvements, number of farms. Total number of acres.. Average acres per farm.... 26 a77 65 824 165 50 115 24 1,599 66.62 $27,725 Total value.... Average price per farm. Average price per acre. a Not including 1 farm of 2,700 acres valued at $50,000. $1,155 $17 During the fruit season the Italians go frequently to Hartford, and many of them use the banks regularly in all their business transactions, paying all bills by check. Others place their money in the savings banks, for the sake of interest. In They are very frugal and do not spend money unnecessarily. buying a farm they seek to secure it at the lowest possible price, and if they once set a price on a farm it is very hard to get them to give more than their figure. To those acquainted with the settlement, few men present a better example of thrift than B. Carini, who came to this locality seventeen years ago without property and since then has acquired over 2,700 acres of land, now valued at over $50,000. In the town of South Glastonbury alone, according to the assessor's report for 1909, 47 of the Italians own more than 2,500 acres of land and property with a total valuation of nearly $60,000. Five more are nonresidents, owning 240 acres of land, valued, according to the assessor's figures, at $3,216. The following table shows the present condition of the land now rented and owned: TABLE 41.-Condition of land and size of farms now rented or owned by 26 North Italians South Glastonbury, Conn. |