CHAPTER III. ELLINGTON, CONN., TOBACCO GROWERS. INTRODUCTION. For purposes of description the Ellington settlement of Jews may be said to include the settlers in Vernon and Ellington townships, close to the Tolland County line. This is sometimes referred to as the "Rockville Settlement," Rockville, Conn., with a population of 10,000, being the county seat and the nearest city of importance. The settlement is about 20 miles northeast of Hartford, and has easy communication with that city both by trolley and by steam trains on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Every one of the Hebrew settlers is within 2 miles of a railway station, and some are distant little more than a few rods. Transportation facilities are very conveniently arranged, and the service is exceptionally good. Ellington lies just east of the Connecticut Valley proper as outlined by the United States soil survey, but the characteristics of the Valley agriculture are retained. The western part of the township is a beautiful farming region and is devoted principally to tobacco culture. The whole township, of course, was settled many years ago, and until within recent years the entire population was of New England stock. The old, substantially built farmhouses, large farmsteads, and fine yards, with the great rows of maples and elms, make a fine showing of thrift and prosperity. The settlement of Hebrews consists of some 16 farm families operating 14 farms in Ellington, 4 or 5 families in Vernon, and perhaps as many more in East Windsor townships. Twenty-five families all told, make up the entire number. Those in Ellington and Vernon only will be considered. There is another important foreign element in the Ellington farming population. Since early in the nineties something like 25 families of German-Swiss, several of them directly from their native land, have come into the township. They have been remarkably successful farmers, and some of them are among Ellington's best citizens. Both Hebrews and Swiss are engaged in tobacco growing and dairying, both have been settled in the community but a short time, both have been operating old farms, bought in a fair state of cultivation at good prices from well-to-do owners; the surroundings-permanent improvements and beautiful farmsteads are the work of previous owners. The Hebrews have moved in since 1904. They are of a well-to-do class of Russian Hebrews, practically all of them men who had been independent proprietors abroad, and who brought from $2,000 to $18,000 with them to the locality. In general, they represent the best type of Hebrew agriculturists investigated. Their investment, both in land and improvements, in capital equipment, and in labor per farm is greater, their gross returns are larger, and |