quently intermingled with clay or the famous New Jersey marl. These heavier soils raise large crops of white potatoes, corn, clover, and timothy, while the lighter soils and coarser sands are adapted to sweet potatoes, grapes, and berries.

It is difficult to characterize these soils accurately. Some are very thin and poor, responding but feebly to large applications of fertilizer. Some compare favorably with the best marl soils of south Jersey. Some of the fields of corn and white potatoes are not inferior to those cultivated anywhere in the State. Most of the land (perhaps 80 per cent) included within the limits of the colony is cleared and improved. Nearly all improved land is in tillage or grass for hay. The uncleared or brush land grows up rapidly to white oak, ash, scrub oak, and pine. To clear this land costs from $18 to $30 per acre, if the stumps are all removed. The ordinary method, called "stumping," is to clear out the brush and small trees, cut off the larger ones close to the stump, burn over the field, plow it, and set it out to berries. If the sprouts are kept cut off, the stumps decay and are very easily removed by a stump machine after four years, or by hand a little later. In six years many can be plowed out. In the early days of the colony the land was fully cleared at once. Many of the Italians still practice this method. Now "stumping" is all but universal among the Hebrews. Nearly all the cultivated land in the vicinity was cleared by the individual owners and their families, and under proper cultural conditions very little of the soil is unfit for either truck crops or berries; there is not necessarily much waste, although some areas are little better than beds of white sand.

The climate is usually favorable for the early maturing of berries, tomatoes, lima beans, and white potatoes. The actual statistics of temperature and rainfall are given in the Vineland report and are repeated with the Bridgeton records in the description of Rosenhayn and Carmel.

About the salubrity of the climate there is no doubt. Malaria and typhoid are scarcely known, and the death rate from ailments aggravated by climatic conditions is very low, indeed.

HISTORY OF THE ROSENHAYN COLONY.

The village of Rosenhayn, in Deerfield Township, Cumberland County, was established and given its name by a certain J. W. Morton about 1868. Morton's idea was to found a settlement of SeventhDay Baptists exclusively, but recruits of that faith did not come rapidly enough, and in a few years the idea of a denominational colony was abandoned. A great many of the original settlers came from New England, but only two of the first comers remain to this day. The name of the town (the German equivalent of "field of roses") owes its origin to a great field of wild roses that bloomed on a low tract of ground near the present site of Carmel.

The settlement was not very prosperous, although recruits continued to be added during the seventies. By 1880 a good many members had become rather discouraged and began to move away; the influx of Hebrews accelerated this movement, and by 1895 very few of the old settlers remained. They were old-fashioned farmers, who raised corn, rye, and other grain crops, planted potatoes for home use, kept a little poultry and a few cows, and marketed very little of

the produce of their farms. Many of them held comparatively large tracts of land at one time, much of which was left untouched in its original uncleared state.

In 1882 or 1883, six or seven Hebrew families were settled by the New York Emigrant Aid Society in Rosenhayn through the instrumentality of the former owners of the land settled by the Alliance colony.

At this same time it appears that the men from whom the land was purchased attempted to start a colony on their own responsibility at a place called Sunnyside, not far from Rosenhayn. The site was a bed of sand, almost utterly worthless for agricultural purposes; nevertheless the land was surveyed and staked out in lots of 10 and 15 acres, on each of which the proprietors built the regulation 12 by 14 house and dug a well. Seventeen families came at one time. For a number of years they struggled on, clearing the worthless land and endeavoring to make a living. It was a vain attempt. The colonists gradually deserted, the promoters lost nearly all they put into houses, and now there are but two families of Hebrews on the original plot, neither of whom were of the initial settlement.

The Hebrew settlement at Rosenhayn grew slowly. The Aid Society bought land in the vicinity, and many of those who settled were recruited from the number of newcomers who first worked as farm hands at Alliance. In 1887 the original six families were joined by about as many more farmer-tailors, who worked on the farms a little, but for the most part drew their incomes from wages they earned in the tailoring establishments of Philadelphia. Thirty-seven more arrived in 1888, and in 1889, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia, the colony had increased to 67 families-294 people. Of these 294 persons, 113 were males and 112 females 10 years of age or over. They owned 1,912 acres of land, of which they were cultivating less than 300 acres, on which, as at Alliance, they had planted strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, grapevines, and corn. They lived in 23 houses, 6 of which were built by Hebrew carpenters. The land was purchased uncleared on the stipulation that the purchaser erect a dwelling and clear a certain number of acres within a specified time. Fifteen of the settlers had been farmers in Russia, but many of them knew nothing about agriculture, and almost none had any money to invest in improvements. Had it not been for the fact that a large building was equipped with sewing machines to accommodate forty or more operators on clothing sent in from Bridgeton and Philadelphia, it is almost certain the settlers must have starved or deserted before the land produced sufficient to support them."

For some reason the colony did not flourish very well. The farms of the colonists were close to those of American farmers, and while there was some prejudice in the first days, many of the Hebrews worked on Gentile farms and learned Gentile methods. There were no factories of any sort for several years. The Bridgeton tailoring companies continued to distribute cloth and to send out garments to the farmers to be made up during the winter, the clothing establishments furnishing the sewing machines as well as the goods. Notwithstanding this source of employment, many of the colonists failed to make an adequate livelihood, and during the early nineties many

a See Migdal Zophim, by Moses Klein, pp. 50 et seq.

of them deserted the colony for other lines of work in the cities. Most of the later comers spent some time in the larger towns before attempting agriculture.

A number of the farmers got very heavily in debt to a building and loan association in Bridgeton, chiefly for supplies and fixed capital. When these mortgages began to be foreclosed about 1890, some deserted and some called upon the Baron de Hirsch Fund for aid. This was granted and was secured by mortgages drawn on very favorable terms-long-time payments at 4 per cent. Later on, a number of the deserters returned.

In 1896 the colonies at Carmel and Rosenhayn had but 70 failiesm remaining of the original 300. In 1899 the population of Rosenhayn was 800, and of these, 47 families only made their living wholly from the land. Since 1899 the colony has increased by 23 the number of farm families. Including Garton road, a part of Rosenhayn, where 22 farmers have settled, Sunnyside, and a few outlying families, there are now 99 farm families.

HISTORY OF THE CARMEL COLONY.

The location of Carmel, which is situated midway between Bridgeton and Millville, was first determined by a hotel or road house. built many years ago, 6 miles out of Bridgeton, for the accommodation of travelers on the solitary road running from Bridgeton to South Vineland. The owner, who had in the meantime accumulated hundreds of acres of wild land in the neighborhood, committed suicide, and the entire property passed into the hands of one W. H. Miller, a German living in Philadelphia. Miller at once secured a number of German farm families, brought them to his wilderness of sand and swamp, and set them at work to put the land into shape for cultivation. He built houses, provided equip ment, and did all in his power to make the project successful. Despite his efforts, the Germans soon grew discouraged, and before the year was out returned to their former homes in Pennsylvania, leav ing the place as much a desert as before.

In this condition it remained until 1882, when 17 families of Russian Hebrews, encouraged by the reports from their brethren at Alliance, settled on the land. The encouragement and material aid given by Michael Heilprin of New York, made the colony possible. Unlike the others, this was an independent enterprise. Land was bought from Miller, much of it either wild swamp or rather stony soils about 3 miles south of Rosenhayn, and the place was called Carmel. Mr. Miller took great interest in the colony from the start, rented to them several houses which he had built for the Germans, and afterwards built others on reasonable terms. The land itself cost $12 to $20 an acre, and for a time the settlers were merely tenants. But money was scarce, crops did not turn out well, and 7 of the 17 families deserted within a year or two. Their places were taken Ta number of other Hebrew families whom Mr. Heilprin established I leased land.

Perhaps no one Hebrew settlement passed through more trying cumstances. When it was found impossible to live on the land wearing it, some hired out as farm laborers and many found

a American Jewish Yearbook, 1899-1900, p. 48.

work making shirts and women's garments for city manufacturers during the winter; in 1889, 63 found employment on sewing-machine work most of the year. Even this did not suffice to build homes, and it was necessary to enlist the aid of a building and loan association in erecting some cheap houses, the loans being being covered by mortgages on the entire property in each case. Few of the purchasers paid their instalments promptly, and many paid nothing whatever on the loans.. When the mortgages fell due, the building and loan association began promptly to foreclose, since the colonists had no other property to fall back on. By 1889 they were hopelessly in debt. In 1890 they turned to the Baron de Hirsch Fund for financial aid, which was granted." Baron de Hirsch gave $5,000, the Mansion House committee, London, $500, and $250 was received from other benevolent sources. Fifteen hundred additional acres of land were bought, and forty new houses were erected by Hebrew carpenters at $800 each, another loan association having come to the aid of the colonists. So badly did the loan -association fare as a result of the enterprise, however, that some years later it went into bankruptcy. The Jewish Colonization Association, as well as the Baron de Hirsch Fund, extended aid both to Rosenhayn and Carmel more than once, otherwise they must have collapsed during the hard times of the nineties. In 1889 the Hebrews at Carmel numbered more than 300 persons, 82 of whom attended the public school. They owned about 900 acres of land (not to speak of the 1,500 acres bought shortly after this), 240 acres of which was in cultivation, in whole or in part. The families numbered about 60, of whom only 17 seemed to raise enough produce on their farms to support themselves through the year.

In 1891 clothing factories were set up at Carmel, employing nearly 100 hands. Four factories are Four factories are now engaged in clothing manufacture, in which, during the busy season, 165 operatives find work. Nearly the entire population of the village is engaged in this industrial pursuit.

A special census, made about 1899, enumerated 89 Hebrew families-471 persons in all, and these families depended for support upon various occupations as follows:

Exclusively farming.

Farming and tailoring..

Farming and other pursuits.

Exclusively tailoring..

Families.

The settlers owned 1,073 acres of land-113 acres in fruit, 504 in truck crops, 456 not in cultivation.

At the same time there were reported 47 settlers at Rosenhayn, holding 1,388 acres of land, 948 of which were in cultivation. At present the number of farm families at or near Carmel or Millville is about 62, out of a total of 160 Hebrew households. Some of these farmers now hold large tracts of land and are farming on a large and improved scale. Fully 40 families have settled near Carmel, Millville, or at Rosenhayn within three years, aided by the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society.

Both of these colonies are now on a secure footing. Fewer outward evidences of prosperity are visible than on many of the smaller

farms at Alliance. More houses are paintless, dilapidated, and disreputable in appearance; a number of farms and farm-yards are ill cared for, and there are, in instances, painful evidences of a long-standing lack of thrift. The village of Rosenhayn itself is a weather-beaten, broken-down, decadent village, with a population 90 percent Hebrew. Little or no enterprise is evident among the so-called business men. Of the three small clothing factories, only one is now in operation, and that without a full complement of workers. There is, however, a good market for farm produce, and local buyers carry on a brisk trade at the railway station, buying the produce on the platform and loading it into cars immediately.

THE VILLAGE OF CARMEL.

Carmel is in a much better general condition. The clothing business is lively, and the village has a thrifty, well-to-do appearance; the residences are comparatively large and well built, with good lawns, neatly kept and fenced or ornamented with trees. Some thrifty business men live here and give an enterprising tone to the place that Rosenhayn does not possess.

There is considerable Hebrew immigration to the country near Carmel at the present time. Within a year preceding the Commission's investigation, which occurred in 1909, at least 29 new farm families, aided by the New York society, settled there, and several came in during 1907 and 1908. These are men with more money than the early comers, and they are settling on improved and cultivated farm land in a better farming section, some of them being located not far from Bridgeton, N. J.

SOIL AND CLIMATE.

In the following tables are given some of the essential climatological features of this section of New Jersey. The tables contain the normal monthly and annual temperature and precipitation so far as available in the records of the United States Weather Bureau stations located at Bridgeton and Vineland.

Normal monthly and annual temperature and precipitation for Salem area, New Jersey. [United States Department of Agriculture. Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils. Soil survey of the Salem area, New Jersey, 1901.]