The Times of Tuesday gives an account of the first
colony founded in America by the trustees of the Hirsch fund. It is situated in Cape May County, New Jersey, and therefore is not far distant from New York. The Colony is called Woodbine,' and consists of 5,100 acres suitable for miscellaneous farming. Market-gardening will probably be the chief industry. "It is also proposed to add canning, boot, glass, and clothing manu- facture. The clay in the soil is suitable for terra-cotta. The settlement includes 250 families, and no head of a family is eligible as a settler unless he has $2,000 in cash." Each agri- culturist receives at cost-price a farm of fifteen acres. Houses of from four to six rooms are built for each family, and money will be advanced to them to work their farms. Roads are being rapidly pushed forward and wells sunk, and already one or two houses are occupied. The trustees are paying special attention to schooling, in order that the children may learn English as rapidly as possible. They find the Hebrew children exceedingly quick, and it is said that "Eli Elkan, the fourteen- year-old son of a Rabbi who had been banished from Russia with his family, did not know a word of English when he left Russia, but within six weeks of his arrival here he wrote an excellent letter in English, describing the condition of the Jews in Moscow." It will be very interesting to see whether the Jews remain on the land, or whether they obey the instinct of the race, and drift into what seems their natural place in society, that of connecting-links between buyer and seller. Hitherto, Jews, when left to themselves, have always become "brokers."
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