Poor Farm Pays
Buffalo Express September 27, 1895

When the sun peeped our of the clouds through the rain yesterday morning to get a preliminary squint at the world before drying Dame Nature's eyes, its range of vision included a number of people, homely-visaged and ill clad, making their way singly, in pairs and, in some instances, in groups of six and eight, southward in Seneca Street toward the city line. Horny-handed and heavy-footed were these people. They carried baskets and shovels and hoes and bags. Some of them had wheelbarrows. Others pushed small hand-carts or pulled quaint little wagons with them. They wore their working clothes. There were men, women and children. And, despite the implements of labor and the work-worn clothes, there was about them an air of happiness, of freedom, of complacence. They were unquestionably bound for work, yet they had a holiday air...

They were the guests of the city at the first harvesting bee ever given under the auspices of Buffalo. The Mayor was their host. Prominent people came to do them honor and to give them credit for the work they had done. They were first in the field of harvest and the fruitage of the soil belonged solely to them...No wonder that there were cheers as the earth gave forth its abundance and great piles of big brown potatoes, stacks of cabbage piled head on head, bushels of turnips and beets and onions and cucumbers and carrots, scores of golden-skinned pumpkins and hundreds of solid squashes, covered the earth in plenty...

The Twitchell plot comprises 66 acres and is but one of the poor farms loaned to the city. Mr. F. B. Robins, who has charge of the property, turned it over to the city in the spring to be used free of charge. There are 152 separate plots on the farm. Each plot covers about one third of an acre. A few hold plots of about half an acre, while others hold only a quarter or a fifth of an acre. The land was divided according to the ability and inclination of the applicants to farm it...

When the potatoes were planted and seed sown in the spring there were those who predicted failure on this particular farm, because of the low-lying land which, they said, would prove too damp and soggy to grow potatoes or much of anything else. If any of these prophets were present yesterday they realized their mistake. Not a single plot failed to yield abundantly. Not one crop was lost. But, on the other hand, the yield was unusually large, speaking both for the fertility of the soil and the faithfulness of the farmers. It was on this Twitchell plot that many of the poorest applicants, whose poverty was most marked, got plots. On this account there were those who said that the crop would prove a failure, because the plot-holders could not and would not work it. They, too, were mistaken...

Mayor Jewett was scheduled to appear at 1 o'clock and he was prompt to the minute. He wore a silk hat, frock coat, white waistcoat, light gray trousers and patent leather shoes. He was immaculate..The Mayor got right to work. He rolled up his trousers and started across the fields, shoe deep in the soft soil, talking with each of the farmers. Not a pile of potatoes or heap of cabbages or a stack of bean vines escaped his notice. He has a wondrous memory for names. There were many Poles with appalling cognomens, yet the Mayor knew many of them, shook hands with them and talked crop like a full-fledged farmer...

"This should satisfy the carpers," said the Mayor, standing aside a pile of potatoes and sweeping his hand across the range of fields. "There is not one failure here...You see that there are more women than men. The women have been doing most of the work.Their husbands labor elsewhere. And mark you that not one of these people here who have worked all summer on their bit of land, got it at first until we knew their poverty was genuine. No one got a plot unless his or her name appeared on the poor books or the lists of the Charity Organization. We gave plots to 578 families, all told. Of these, only 15 proved lazy or unworthy. There are people who refused us land at first who have been out here to look at what these laborers have done here, and they say that they are sorry, very sorry, they did not let us have their land."

...Supt. Mitchell estimated the total yield from all the poor farms at 12,000 bushels of potatoes, 300 dozen ears of corn, 50 bushels of onions, 300 bushels of turnips, 600 bushels of dry beans, 25,000 to 30,000 heads of cabbage, 200 to 300 heads of kale, 100 bushels of beets, 10,000 cucumbers, 150 bushels of rutabagas, 2,000 pumpkins, 3,000 squashes, 5,000 stalks of celery, 150 bushels of tomatoes, 1,000 dozen bunches of radishes, 200 bushels of carrots and 5,000 heads of lettuce. Of this he estimated that a little over a fifth would be farmed on the Twitchell farm....The value of the crop at its lowest estimate is $12,000.