Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/139

Rh from what has been said. The inability of these large planters to procure the needed labor will cause them to be superseded in the course of time by small farmers, who will work themselves, and who will be able and willing to employ the white immigrants like the Western farmers.

A modest culture is required with two or three hands, living, in a patriarchal way, with the farmer's family. Whenever that will be generally introduced, immigrants will come and remain, or, if they leave again, it will be to settle in the neighborhood. Farms should be laid out for the reception of European laborers, and it is upon the formation of these farms and the introduction of Europeans that the future of the South depends. Results more satisfactory to both the Southern people and the immigrants would no doubt be reached, if some such plan were pursued by other districts as that adopted by the district of Newberry, South Carolina.

Here an Immigration Society has been formed, under the auspices of Rev. T. S. Boinest, consisting of the most notable farmers and planters, who have raised a fund of $5,000 or $6,000 for the purpose of defraying the necessary travelling and other expenses of the European laborers they wish to employ. By this means, the society, though existing but two years, has induced about 400 immigrants to make the district (Newberry) their home, and according to the latest reports both the employers and employees are satisfied and content.

The society has appointed as agent, a European, Mr. F. W. Bruggemann, who is familiar with the character and wants of the immigrant, and forms the connecting link between the latter and their native employers, and to this circumstance is due the happy result of its efforts.

North of the Rotunda and adjoining it are the offices of the Commissioners. They consist of three rooms, occupying nearly the entire front of the building on the second floor, and include the offices of the General Agent and Treasurer, the Meeting-Room of the Board, and the General Agent's private office.

XIII. The General Agent's Office is a large vaulted room, the central one and largest of the three, in shape a parallelogram, extending on its longest axis east and west, and containing about