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Early Difficulties.
Excepting certain settlements of Jewish farmers in Brazil referred to
elsewhere (pp. 265, 266), agriculture among the Jews in South America has
been confined to the Argentine colonies established by the Jewish
Colonization Association of Paris (of which the late Baron and Baroness de
Hirsch were the founders and practically the sole stockholders). In
August, 1891, by the direction of Baron de Hirsch, some 3,000 square
leagues of land were purchased in various parts of the Argentine Republic,
for $1,300,000 (£260,000). In all, over 17,000,000 acres were acquired.
At first the project of settling Russian refugees on a large scale in
Argentina met with a protest from the government, but the matter was
amicably arranged. As early as 1889, independent attempts had been made by
certain Jewish immigrants from Russia to establish colonies in Argentina,
but this was not done on a well-ordered plan, and later these colonies and
colonists were absorbed by the Jewish Colonization Association. The
colonies were named for Baron and Baroness Maurice de Hirsch. At first two
tracts were set apart for colonization: one, 9 leagues square, situated in
the province of Buenos Ayres and called Mauricio; the other, 4½ leagues
square, in the province of Santa Fé and called Moïseville. Colonists
began to arrive in the summer of 1891 in such numbers that by the end of
the year they numbered 2,850. The central administrative office was
established in the city of Buenos Ayres; but considerable friction arose
between the colonists and the non-resident executive officers, with the
result that the very existence of the colony was threatened. There were
other difficulties: the locusts, which were very numerous, destroyed the
growing crops, and water was scarce. Although the colonies received
constant accessions, it was necessary to deport so many discontented
colonists to the United States—800 were deported within about two
years—that in October, 1893, only 2,683 persons remained. Since then the
executive office has been reorganized, and although there have been many
desertions, due to discontent or to the damage done to the holdings by
locusts and drought, as well as to the distance of the farms from the
railroad stations and markets, the number of inhabitants has been slowly
but steadily increasing, and the condition of the colonists has become
fairly comfortable.
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