Net value of all property.

$7,950.

$11,850..

$5,800.

$5,900.

$5,600.

$1,200.

None $1,300.

None $5,870.

None

None.

$5,900.

$1,400.

ANNUAL VALUE OF FARM PRODUCE SOLD (AVERAGE FOR TWO YEARS).

Recent Immigrants in Agriculture: Italians.

$78

b 125

b 20

$25 b 25

25

13

Hay.

70

10

Oats.....

20

160

130

1285

140

75

55

83

25

130

28

125

23

65

12

Other garden products not speci

75

100

fied.

Dairy products.

50

750

90

Live stock.

100

350

125

18

50

13

Poultry products.

5

145

125

25

25

30

333333

Total..

676

2,475

923

368

550

164

198

873

1,128

359

(1)

Supplementary income.

(c)

(d)

(e)

48296°-VOL 21

Purchased before settling in locality.

Produced but not sold.

STANDARD OF LIVING.

The immigrants have been in the locality so long that they have be come thoroughly Americanized. The older people maintain a few of their old-time customs, but the present generation have been brought up in American ways. The houses are neat and well furnished, and the Italians seem to be more prosperous and to live under better conditions than the Germans. The difference is not

great, but the balance is in favor of the Italians.

The children are not more inclined to stay on the farm than are the American children.

Some of the girls are working in Springfield or Marshfield as domestics; one is a milliner, and another is a stenographer. The children that are at home are for the most part under 21, and they express a desire to get away from the farm as soon as possible. In two instances young men were found at home staying with their parents and farming as a means of livelihood; these two men seem to be satisfied with their condition. The women and children work very little in the fields, leaving that almost entirely to the men. But during the early years of the settlement the women and children aided materially in clearing the land and preparing it for cultivation.

Nearly all of the children have attended public schools, but now most of them have passed the school age.

Almost all the foreign-born have their full naturalization papers, and, although they do not aspire to political honors, they all attend the polls on election day.

This foreign element is so small and has been in existence so long, with so little increase in recent years, that it is difficult to point out any present effects on the community; the greatest effects were produced during the early years. Several of the immigrants came to the locality with nothing and now all are independent, have comfortable homes, and are respected citizens. As one of the Italians said, "We had to go to our neighbors when we first came for everything that we needed, but nowadays our neighbors are coming to What has been accomplished by the first Italians and Germans in this locality is only an example of what might be done on large areas of undeveloped land in the southern portion of Missouri if a desirable class of immigrants were secured and interested in farm life.

us.

CHAPTER XXII.

KNOBVIEW, MO., NORTH ITALIAN FRUIT GROWERS.

INTRODUCTION.

Knobview, in Phelps County, Mo., in the heart of the Ozarks, is a flag station 95 miles west of St. Louis on the line of the Frisco Railroad running from St. Louis to Springfield. Here an old freight car is used as the depot. Across the track is a general store and saloon. An eighth of a mile west is another store, a canning factory, a church, and the district school. These buildings and 10 Italian farmhouses are all that are seen from the station at Knobview.

The forty-odd Italian farms are scattered over three sections, occupying all of the railroad land available in this locality in 1898. For descriptive purposes they may all be considered as within the Knobview colony. The Italian farms average 40 acres in extent, about one-half of which has been cleared of the original timber and set out in apple trees and grapevines. Tomatoes are grown extensively to supply the demand of the local canning factory. Poultry, butter, and cheese are sold in small quantities, though the greater part of these products is used to supply the tables of the Italians themselves. Wheat, oats, and corn are also raised and sold to grain buyers in the neighboring towns of St. James and Cuba.

Eleven years ago 40 Italian families came to Knobview with practically nothing, and settled on soil that was said to be unproductive. Out of this hilly, worn-out land, by years of incessant toil, they have built up a farming community that is a credit to themselves and to the vicinity.

Many of these Italians arrived in the United States in 1896, coming directly from their homes in northern Italy to the plantation of the Corbin Plantation Company at Sunnyside, Ark. Sickness and numerous other causes forced many of them to leave that locality, and a committee of three was chosen to select a new place for settlement. This committee went to St. Louis and there met the immigration agent of the Frisco Railroad, who showed them three sections of land owned by the railroad at Knobview. After visiting various other localities in the Southwest, two of the committee reported in favor of Knobview and the third in favor of Tontitown, Ark. In consequence of this division of opinion the Italians separated into three parties. One decided to settle in Knobview, the second to go to Tontitown, and the rest determined to fight it out at Sunnyside.

In January, 1898, 10 Italians, leaving their families at Sunnyside, came to Knobview and began to build houses to shelter the first group of colonists. Lumber was shipped from St. Louis in carload lots and the houses went up rapidly; by March six houses had been built. During that month 30 families arrived and were crowded into the six houses, until each man could build a house of his own. Each family bought

20, 40, or 80 acres of unimproved land from the railroad, paying an average of $3 per acre. It is said that the 30 families had less than $1,000 among them, hence the land was necessarily purchased on credit. The railroad company required about one-seventh of the purchase price down, the balance payable within seven years with 7 per cent interest. The Italians were all from the agricultural sections of northern Italy, and just previous to coming to Knobview they had spent two years on the Sunnyside plantation raising cotton. Therefore, every man was an agriculturist.

The land purchased was for the most part covered with brush and a heavy growth of oak. First a small area was cut off and a small two-room frame house was built, then more land was cleared, the roots and the limbs of the trees piled up for fuel, the ground broken, and a garden planted. Gradually the woods were cut away and the land cultivated, until now over half the land owned by these Italians has been put into cultivation.

Since Italians had very little money among them the merchants in the neighboring towns were at first reluctant about giving them credit; so for the first few years they had to depend quite largely upon their gardens. Now they can secure almost unlimited credit from the merchants, who are glad of an opportunity to accommodate an Italian

customer.

It was some years before a living could be made from the farms, and during that time the fathers and sons were absent for six or eight months every year. Some found employment in the coal mines of Illinois, others on railroad construction work in Missouri. At times there were as many as 50 or 60 men working away from home, leaving the women and children to carry on the farms. At present a number of men and boys continue this practice, for some of the farms are not yet sufficiently productive. On the other hand, there is little doubt that if the Italians would clear all their land and cultivate it thoroughly, they would be able to make money on their farns. But they seem to enjoy this roving life and would rather receive a fixed amount of money at the end of every week than depend on the uncertain returns from the farms at irregular intervals.

During the eleven years the colony has been in existence a few of the Italians have moved to other sections of the United States, the chief reason being that a living could be made more easily in other localities than on the half-cleared fields of Knobview. The 40 Italian families now there number nearly 220 people. Fifteen Italians own land in the settlement but live elsewhere in the United States, having purchased it when the colony was first started. Some are holding it for speculative purposes, some as a sort of country place to which they can retire and spend their declining years. This village is the product of Italian hands. After it was fully established the railroad company named the place Knobview and made it a flag station for some of the passenger trains, with a station agent in charge. A few of the Italian children have grown up and married persons of their own race and bought farms. The colony is alive and prosperous, but the growth is slow.

Good land can be purchased for $15 to $25 per acre. This land is partially cleared, and good crops of grapes, tomatoes, potatoes, and corn can be produced after a little work has been done to clear the ground of brush and stones.