THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

lor and later Senator Contenius, already familiar to the reader, who inspected the southern colonies during the years 1798 to 1800, the Mennonites ‘generally lived sober and clean domestic lives and were diligent and assiduous.’ Yet in spite of this Contenius expressed Documentary Supplement 121 doubt that these settlers would ever achieve ‘a good position.’ The region around Chortitza is located on an arid, rocky elevation. Because of the dry soil, insufficient precipitation and an inadequate water supply, according to Contenius the grasses burnt, the grain grew poorly, while the farmer often worked and seeded his fields in vain. Only seldom could a settler produce enough to feed his family. Only cattle raising brought them profit and so many of the settlers changed to this aspect of far min g They had brought horses and cattle not native to Russia with them in sufficient numbers. But a shortage of grazing land and hay [?!] kept the settlers from expanding this branch of agriculture to the extent they were accustomed and would have wished. The severe winters were especially harmful since neither the settlers nor their cattle were used to them. [Aside from all this, the land each settler had been allotted proved to be too small. . . .] The concentration of the Mennonites in an area that did not provide them with the requisite advantages was the main cause for these extremely poor conditions ; but to this was added the fact that the government, in contrast to the privileges and conditions it had promised, preferred only very untimely and inadequate assistance. For the sums of money paid out to them in small and irregular installments, coming as they did only after an extended period of time during which the settlers had been unable to settle down, merely covered the cost of living and were insufficient to allow them to establish themselves solidly, so that many houses remained unfinished while thirty-eight families had no homes at all . . . (compare also H66). c ) “Such doubts concerning the future success of our colonization projects,” writes A. Klaus, "will call forth an involuntary smile from such present-day 46 readers who are more or less familiar with the situation of our settlers. ... It should be self-evident that the Mennonites could acquire a better understanding of the agricultural conditions of the land only through heavy sacrifices and persistent and thoughtful application. But the evidence available to us convinces us that material sacrifices did not intimidate the settlers nor were they deficient in moral courage. . . .” 2. Regarding the economic situation in the Molotschna Colony, A. Klaus writes the following in his Unsere Kolonien : “. . . In spite of the fact that the area around the Molotschna had an inadequate rainfall and was completely treeless, the entire subsequent Mennonite migration came primarily to this region. No longer did only the impoverished people from Prussia