THE BARON DE HIRSCH AGRICULTURAL 

 SCHOOL 



BY JACOB G. LIPMAN 

 Director of New Jersey Agricultural School 



IN planning the establishment of an agricultural col- 

 ony the Trustees of the Baron de Hirsch Fund had 

 occasion to examine and consider a number of sites. 

 They finally selected a tract of about six thousand acres 

 in the vicinity of Woodbine and Mount Pleasant in 

 Cape May County, New Jersey. Their final decision 

 as to the location was influenced partly by the low cost 

 of the land and partly by the equable climate, favorable 

 rainfall conditions and the proximity of the land to im- 

 portant eastern markets. 



When Professor Sabsovich was appointed agricultural 

 adviser of the newly established colony, and was later 

 made responsible for its agricultural and industrial devel- 

 opment, he realized that he was confronted by certain 

 serious and almost insuperable difficulties. He recognized 

 that the open, sandy and gravelly soils of Cape May have 

 their possibilities. He saw that with proper methods of 

 tillage and fertilization they could be made to grow 

 profitable crops of vegetables, small fruits and tree fruits. 

 He likewise recognized that the transforming of the 

 newly cleared scrub oak and pine lands into productive 

 soil called for a degree of technical skill and of special 

 information not possessed by the immigrants from the 



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