COLONIES. 



527 



ed, and was for a time under the direction of gene- 

 ral Diebitsch. Mr Lyall, iu 1822, visited the Rus- 

 sian military colonies, and gave an account of them 

 in his Travels through Russia (London, 1824). 



COLONIES, PAUPER. The public attention has, 

 of late, been directed to some novel and very inter- 

 esting establishments in Holland, which have ac- 

 quired the name of pauper colonies. The object of 

 these institutions is to remove those persons who are 

 a burden to society to the poorest waste lands, where, 

 under judicious regulations, they may be enabled to 

 provide for their own subsistence. The best account 

 that we have seen of these establishments has been 

 published by Mr Jacob, the reporter on the corn 

 trade. As the subject is so interesting and novel, a 

 detailed account, we hope, will be agreeable. Of 

 the pauper colonies, the one which Mr Jacob 

 selects for illustration is that of Frederics Oord. 

 The originator of this scheme was general Van den 

 Bosch. The general, while in the island of Java, 

 had formed a connexion with a Chinese mandarin, 

 whose skill in farming he had admired, and who had 

 under him a colony of emigrant Chinese. On his 

 return to Europe, he laid oefore the king of the 

 Netherlands a plan for a pauper establishment, which 

 met with the royal patronage. A public meeting 

 was held at the Hague in 1818, and a " society of 

 beneficence" formed, and two committees organized 

 for its management. The president was prince Fre- 

 deric, the second son of the king. Having received 

 the sanction of the king, the society was recommend- 

 ed to all the local authorities, and soon found itself 

 in possession of 5,625, obtained from more than 

 20,000 members. With these funds the society pur- 

 chased an estate on the east side of the Zuyder Zee, 

 and not far from the town of Steenwyk. This estate 

 cost them .4,882, and contained from 1200 to 

 1300 acres, about 200 of which was under a sort of 

 culture, or covered with bad wood, and the rest a 

 mere heath. They let the cultivated land, about 

 one-tenth of the whole ; deepened the Aa (which 

 runs through the estate), so that it is navigable for 

 boats, and built store-houses, a school, and dwellings 

 for about fifty-two families, of from six to eight per- 

 sons each. Their operations were begun in Septem- 

 ber, 1818 ; by the 10th of November the houses 

 were ready ; and the communes sent some poor fa- 

 milies. The total expense of each family was ,150, 

 and this included the building of each house ; the 

 furniture and implements ; the clothing ; two cows, 

 or one cow and ten sheep ; cultivation and seed, first 

 year ; advances in provisions ; advances of other 

 kinds ; flax and wool to be spun, and seven acres un- 

 cultivated land. This sum allowed about .25 for 

 each individual, and they are expected to repay it to 

 the society in rent and labour, besides maintaining 

 themselves, in about sixteen years. Each allot- 

 ment of seven acres is laid out in a rectangle, 

 having the house with one end toward the road, 

 and the other reaching fifty feet into the allotment. 

 The dwelling occupies the part next the road ; then 

 comes the barn, after that the stalls for the cattle, 

 and behind these the reservoir for manure, in which 

 every particle of vegetable and animal refuse is care- 

 fully made 'ip into compost, with the heath and moss 

 of the land ; the preparation of this compost being 

 one of the most essential of their labours. 



The colonists are subjected to a kind of military 

 regulation, all their work being done by the piece. 

 They assemble at six in the morning, in summer and 

 winter, and those who do not answer to their names 

 at the roll-call get no wages for the day. When the 

 labour of the day is over, each receives a ticket stat- 

 iaig the amount of wages ; and for that he may pro- 

 eure food from the store at fixed rates. Those who 



are at first unable to support themselves obtain cred t 

 for a short period. The women spin, weave, and 

 knit, at first from purchased wool and flax, but as 

 soon as possible from the produce of their own flocks 

 and fields. A day and a half's work every week 

 is allowed for the support of the sick, the infirm, and 

 those who are not fit for labour ; and for this, those 

 who work are allowed one shilling per day in sum- 

 mer, and eight pence in the winter. The whole of 

 the necessaries and appointments are regularly in- 

 spected with military care, and such as nave been 

 wasteful are obliged to make good what they have 

 destroyed. It will be borne in mind, that the whole 

 stock out of which each family of six or eight per 

 sons is to find support, and, if they can, effect some 

 savings, is the stock of 150, and the seven acres of 

 waste land, which is of a description not the most 

 susceptible of cultivation. The careful preparation 

 of manure, the most remarkable feature in Chinese 

 husbandry, is the grand resource ; and the result is 

 most encouraging, as an example of how much re- 

 gularity and perseverance may effect with small 

 means. 



As the preparation of manure is still very imper- 

 fectly understood, and as many families throw away 

 what constitutes, with these colonies, the elements of 

 prosperity, we give some details from Mr Jacob's 

 book, the utility of which must compensate for their 

 homeliness. When the house and barn are built, the 

 soil formed, by mixing sand and clay to a consistence 

 which makes it sufficiently retentive of moisture, the 

 land manured, dug, and one crop sowed or planted 

 on it, then a family, consisting of from six to eight 

 persons, is fixed on at an expense, as before stated, of 

 150. To enable this household to subsist, to pay the 

 rent, and to save something, it is necessary that very 

 assiduous manuring be persevered in. The directors 

 therefore require, and, by their enforcement of the 

 prescribed regulations, indeed, compel eath family to 

 provide sufficient manure to dress the "whole of the 

 land every year. For this purpose, each household 

 must provide itself with 150 tons of manure yearly, 

 or at the rate of more than 20 tons to each acre. 

 When it is considered that few of the best Eng- 

 lish farmers can apply one-half that quantity of ma- 

 nure, it will not appear wonderful that seven acres 

 should be made to provide for the sustenance of the 

 same number of persons and leave a surplus to pay 

 rent and to form a reserve of savings. On each 

 farm, the live stock of two cows, or one cow and ten 

 sheep, to which may be added pigs, would not nearly 

 enable the cultivator to manure nis small portion of 

 land once even in four or five years. It hence becomes 

 necessary to form masses of compost, the collecting 

 the materials for which forms the greater part of the 

 employment of the colonists. These masses are 

 created almost wholly by manual labour, of that 

 kind which, but for such an application of it, would 

 be wholly lost to the community. As straw is, at 

 best, in the early period, not abundant, and as that 

 from the corn must, at first, be chiefly used as food 

 for the cattle or for covering to the houses, other 

 materials, which the heaths furnish, are resorted to 

 in order to make beds for the cattle. The heath 

 land is pared, but the operation is to cut with the 

 spade a very thin slice of the earth, and not to the 

 bottom of the roots of the plants, that they may, as 

 they soon will do, shoot again ; the parings are not 

 only made thin, but in narrow strips or small spots. 

 Thus but little soil is taken away, and the roots, 

 though cut, are not all of them destroyed ; the parts 

 that are left bare are protected from being too much 

 dried up by the sun and wind, and the seeds of the 

 ripe heather are scattered over the spaces left bare 

 near them, and soon bring forth the same plants. By 



