JEWS AS AGRICULTURISTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 73, 27 March 1909, Page 14

JEWS AS AGRICULTURISTS.

Ever since the Jews began their heavy immigration to the United States a decade or two ago, it has been pointed out how beneficial it would be if a considerable portion of them would become farmers. The encouragement given by Hebrew societies to the movement to turn the Jews to agriculture (says an American writer) is having some, substantial reward, for there is a &olid significance in the Jewish farmers' convention that has been held in New York. The twenty-seven delegates represented two thousand farmers of the Hebrew race in the States of r«ew York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and their discussions revealed the fact that they are head over heels in the business, with no desire to return to the pedlar's pack or frequent again any of the channels of ordinary trade. Tho old idea that Jews could not become farmers because of a natural aversion to the cultivation of the soil has no sound- basis, however much the arbitrary conditions of tho life of the race for many centuries in Europe may have turned them into the pursuits of commerce and finance. In this country the land is open to them, and only time is needed to develop in them a ,love for it.

Regarding swimmers and natatorial matters in general in the Eastern State, Findlay (who won the 220 yds breastbtroko championship of Australia at the recent meeting), in conversation with a West Australian reporter recently remarked: — "In Sydney swimming, as far as Australia is concerned, is at the highest standard, the carnivals being well conducted, the swimming exceptionally fast and even, and the swimmers above the calibre in other States. The carnivals held in Melbourne are very badly carried out, and in this respect they have a lot to learn from us in Western Australia. They have only a few good swimmers in Victoria — Beaurepaire, Mason, and Richardson being the only good men they have got, the great majority of the others being below the average here- A lad named Johnson, who is a schoolboy, is put forward as a good longdistance swimmer, but we have as good as he over here of his own age. In New South Wales they have schoolboya who can do their 100 yds and 50yds in lot taster time than the best of our swimmers can cover the distances. One of these lads can do the 50yds in 27sec, and they have a family of*boys— Boardmans— who can do the 100 yds under the minute or under lmm 2sec. Cecil Healy has gone oft. and he said some time ago that he intended giving the game up. Ho has been going in for surf swimming more. Young Hardwick is improving splendidly, and has the makings of a champion. Beaurepaire, of course, is still on the improve, and has yet to see his Best days. He is young, but has learned how to iqok after himself, which is a great thing. Diving in Sydney is a feature of the carnivals, and the three cracks— Humphries, Punch, and Wicuham — are simply marvellous. They can do anything they like in the air or off the boards or high dive."