CLIMATE. The Knobview region has an elevation of over 1,000 feet; this, together with good drainage and excellent water, gives the locality a very healthful climate. The winters are not severe and the summers are not excessively hot. The rainfall is well distributed through the crop season, as may be seen from the following table taken from the United States Weather Bureau records at Rolla, which is 15 miles distant: Average monthly and annual temperature and precipitation, Rolla, Mo. [United States Department of Agriculture, Weather Bureau, Summary of the Climatological Data, section 50.] The land on which the Italians have settled is divided into two types, the Clarksville stony loam, and the Clarksville silt loam. The soil of the Clarksville stony loam consists of a pale yellow to gray, stony, silty loam, with a depth of 8 to 15 inches. This soil has a large quantity of rock fragments in it. The subsoil is a heavy red clay. This soil is derived from the limestone formations and frequently layers of limestone are found near the surface. Some of the Italians experienced difficulties in building their cellars on account of the layers of rocks beneath the surface of the top soil. This soil, by reason of its rolling and hilly topography, has good surface drainage, it is warm and early, and when cleared of brush will produce good crops of native blue grass and white clover. Apples, grapes, and plums also thrive. The Clarksville silt loam has an average depth of 7 inches, and is of a gray ash colored or pale yellow silt loam. The subsoil is a heavy silt loam. Owing to the rolling surface the drainage is good. Corn averages 10 to 40 bushels per acre, wheat 5 to 15 bushels. Apples and grapes both do well on this soil. This land is somewhat later than that first described, yet both soils have been made to produce excellent crops by the Italian farmers, who with the further development of dairying should increase the productiveness of the land many fold." a United States Department of Agriculture. Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils, 1905 [Seventh Report]. AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS. As already noted the farms in this locality vary all the way from 20 to 80 acres in extent, the average being about 40 acres. All the farms have an acre or more in grapes, which are crushed and made into wine. One man is reported as having made 300 gallons of wine from three-fourths of an acre of grapes, which he estimated worth 75 cents a gallon, or an average production of $200 to $300 per acre. Tomatoes are grown in large quantities and sold to the local canning factory. Eight dollars a ton has been the prevailing price during the past two years, and the farmers have averaged $25 to $30 per acre. Recently a few Italians have gone into the dairy business, making butter and cheese, and one man is reported as having sold $175 worth of cheese during the year 1908. All the Italians have vegetable gardens in which they raise a wide range of vegetables, including tomatoes, onions, beans, sweet corn, and potatoes, and fresh vegetables are on their tables eight months in the year. Modern farming implements in the form of horse plows and cultivators are seen on the farms. Most of the Italians keep one cow or more, also horses, hogs, and chickens; the manure is saved and put on the land. The Italians have built houses, barns, and numerous sheds and outbuildings. Some of the houses are built of sawn lumber, clapboarded and neatly painted. Other houses are built of hewn logs. placed one upon the other and the corners dovetailed. The space between these rough logs has been filled with cement and the whole house whitewashed both inside and out. MARKETS. Knobview is situated 7 miles from Cuba and 4 miles from St. James, these being the largest towns in the locality. The roads are poor, full of rocks, and steep grades. Every Saturday Italians with their families are seen driving to either one or the other of these two towns with butter, cheese, eggs, and poultry, which they exchange for groceries and provisions. Some families raise enough poultry to supply them with groceries the whole year. Some cord wood is also sold in the two neighboring towns. There are two small stores in Knobview, owned by Italians, and the settlers do a large share of their business through these two establishments. These two Italians also own the canning factory, and at the time the settlement was visited by the Commission's agent another Italian was erecting a gristmill. PROPERTY OWNED. In all, 55 Italians own land in the locality, but only 40 families make their homes there. Seventy-five per cent of the land is free from debt, and in all probability the entire holding will be paid for in a short time. The Italians deposit very little money in the banks. They seem to expend what money they have in improving their farms, building new houses, increasing their live stock, and improving their property generally. STANDARD OF LIVING. There is little that is peculiar or characteristic in the clothes worn by the Italians. The Italian, it is said, selects clothes for their serviceable qualities and wears them a longer time than the American does. Some of the houses visited were as neat as would be found in American localities; everything in order, the rooms neatly furnished, the floors clean, and the kitchen neat and tidy. Other houses were just the opposite. It is everywhere acknowledged that the Italians do not spend as much money for food as Americans do, yet they are healthy and none of them show the effects of poor living. They have their own gardens and these alone save them much expense. Chickens and eggs are produced and consumed at home. During the month of October many of the Italians are their own butchers, killing and dressing their hogs to furnish pork for the winter. With regard to outdoor labor, it may be said that women and children help in picking the tomatoes and the grapes and in fact are as useful on the farms as are the men, and when the head of the household works in the mines the wife operates the farm. OPPORTUNITIES FOR EMPLOYMENT. There is very little opportunity for wage earning in the immediate vicinity of Knobview. When the canning factory is running a few extra hands are employed, but usually members of the owner's family do all the extra work. A few of the young men go to southwest Missouri and work in the coal mines for a few months during the year, and four or five of the young girls are working in neighboring towns as domestics, but generally the girls seem to prefer to stay at home. CHURCH FACILITIES. During the first eight years of the colony's existence religious services were conducted by a priest from Rolla, but within a few years a church and rectory were built in town. SCHOOL FACILITIES. The district school is in a new building completed in the summer of 1909. At the opening of school in the fall 45 pupils were enrolled and all but 4 of them were of Italian parentage. At St. James there is also a public school where many of the pupils are Italians. There is no race prejudice among the children. They play together and nothing in their dress or manner distinguishes Americans from Italians. The teacher at Knobview, speaking of the aptitude and intelligence of the Italians, said that she could see little or no difference between the American and Italian children. POLITICAL CONDITIONS. The Italians now have 60 votes, and it is said that they all turn out at election and that the vote is equally divided between the two leading parties. Some men prominent in local affairs in St. James looked after these Italians as soon as they moved to the locality, and when the time came for naturalization 37 Italians appeared and 35 received their first papers on the first appearance. Since that time the rest of the Italians have received their first papers and the previous applicants their second papers. Though the Italians have a number of votes and a good deal of influence, none have aspired to political honors. MORAL CONDITIONS. Merchants, bankers, and all classes of people that deal with the Italians speak in the highest terms of praise of their commercial honesty. They pay their obligations promptly, and at the banks they meet their obligations, frequently before they are due. All the houses have barrels of wine stored away in the cellars, and wine is drunk as freely as water, but it is said that cases of drunkenness are rare. Crime and misdemeanors are unknown, and none of the Italians in this community have ever been arrested. Here, as well as elsewhere in Italian settlements, the children stay at home, or if they are away from home, contribute their earnings to the father until they are 21 years old, often remaining at home until married. The Italians marry young, and have, up to the present time, married only persons of their own race. STATISTICAL DATA FOR SELECTED FAMILIES. The table following shows the economic and financial condition of five typical families of Italians in this colony. The majority of them came from Sunnyside, Ark., and all bought land on their arrival. One made a living from the land on his immediate arrival, two still work on the railroad during the summer in order to supplement their income, one worked for nine years at the same occupation, and one man received money from his brother in order to carry on the farm work. In four cases the acreage of land now owned has increased over that first purchased, and none of the farms report indebtedness. The value of products produced and sold the are very small, and it is only by means of some supplementary income that the Italians are able to make a living. |