In the text from the series 'Letters from a trip around the world', the issue of Polish farmers is mentioned. The text is accompanied by photographs of the farm of F. Chmielewski on Long Island, the richest farmer in the area, who came from Żaly in Rypinsk (Source: "Ziemia. Tygodnik Krajoznawczy Ilustrowany', Warsaw 1913, no. 50, pp. 12-14, after: Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa).

A modernised reading of the text.

Polish farmers in the United States.

The Polish worker brings no professional aptitude to America. All he brings is a sturdy frame, great patience, and the perseverance in work he lacked in his homeland, which he quickly gains here. He is a typical farm labourer, but his robust bones and muscles of steel will find a conqueror here: lurking above the buy-a-list industrialist, who will suck out his strength and health and fill his coffers with the fiery blood of the Polish people. The former farmhand or foreman will recoil at times. It is interesting to follow the mood of these faces when, during the reading, the image of the harvest is shown on the screen, the reaping, the stacking of heaps. There is a friendly murmur in the hall, kind smiles on their faces, as if meeting a friend, a glimmer of old memories in their eyes, and then those Woitki and Grzegor, today wearing yellow shoes or boots, those Rózie and Walerki in hats with feathers, become for a moment again that singing group of farmers at festive harvest time, when their "hu, hu!" sounded on the wide fields of Polish land. They do not, however, flock to farm work on a permanent basis, although this type of work still has a huge field ahead of it in the States, where there are areas lying almost untouched, and even in the Atlantic states one drives for hours through unpopulated areas. The Washington government understands well the need to direct immigration to the role, but controlled at present by the big industrialists, it does not put enough emphasis on the matter. It is only recently that the Ministry of Labour has been publishing, in several languages, 'Agricultural News' about the conditions of farm labour in the various states. From these news items it appears that all states are ideal for agriculture. There is undoubtedly a lot of exaggeration in this, but nevertheless, those who went into farming 15-20 years ago stood great. I toured Polish farms on Long Island near New York. Admittedly, it is a dream location, as a city of 5 million people will buy whatever the area produces, but I found very interesting conditions there. The richest farmer, Franciszek Chmielewski, in White Salt near Flushing, the oldest Dutch settlement on Long Island, is a native of the village of Żatc in Rypiński. He is a blacksmith by trade, but when he came to America twenty-four years ago, unable to find other work, he worked for a German farmer. "He found a blacksmith's business and was able to earn his own money, because he had a farmer from Ripinsk on the lake. After a few years, he leased the farm and started Ripin farming: he sowed oats, some buckwheat, vetch, planted potatoes, as in Żąłem. Live - he lived, but it wasn't a 'businesse'. He had a little of his own, took a little from his brother, borrowed a little and had already acquired a piece of land for himself near Brooklyn. Here he had already transitioned to a vegetable farm. These pay off best in spring. Chmielewski has such a kindly Ripin face, such a stern red moustache and such noble, clean, blue, honest eyes that an American gave him 1,000 windows on credit. In a year's time the windows were paid off, and the American gave a second thousand windows. It was only now that the vegetable economy had begun for the various new vegetables; four or five times a year the crop would rotate on the same land: radishes, lettuces would finish, spinach would go, followed by tomatoes, cucumbers, followed by kale and various other vegetables. Brooklyn grew, elongated, reached as far as the farm. He sold his land to Chmielewski under the city for a big profit, and moved himself out to Long Island, where they count him today at $80,000. He employs 20 people each on the farm, pays 8,000 roubles for fertilisers, 200 roubles a quarter for water to irrigate his garden, and also has a wagon loaded with vegetables four times a week, which often brings 400 roubles, though sometimes even 15 roubles, depending on the delivery. The workers are mostly Poles; they get 18-20 dollars a month each, housing and food five times a day. Chmielewski works alone and travels alone with his cart to New York, four hours away. He raises cows, pigs and poultry only for his needs. He does not grow fruit or flowers. The flower farms on Long Island are mostly French. Chmielewski's neighbour and cum, Gołębiowski, also a native of Plock. He was 2 weeks on deadline at the cobbler's. During that time he only carried water from the Vistula to Tumska Gora and went with his "mistress" to the market, and was given food in a bowl - all together in the hallway. Today he leases a farm on Long Island, planting only early potatoes and strawberries. In New Jersey, on his own 119 acres, and the Lord God was kind to him because he gave him 7 daughters. The eldest daughter drove us to the railway in such an exquisite carriage, harnessed to such a beautiful chestnut, that in our country no Kuyavian or Sandomierz heiress could have done it. Both couples have Polish wives, already born in America, but the children speak mostly English, perhaps feeling that their provincial Polish does not harmonise with the certain comfort of life that surrounds them. Chmielewski spoke with tears in his eyes about Żąle and his heir, with whom they caught fish and crayfish in the lake more than once.