804 
The Dutch Agricidtitnd Coloidcs. 
acres of the estates are in arable culture, and there are 1 1 farm- 
steadings belonging to the " colonies," besides a large number of 
farms which are at present let to tenants. The course of agri- 
culture is designed to supply the wants of the " colonies," nearly- 
all the produce being consumed on them. The course of crop- 
ping pursued is: (1) rye followed by spurrey or stubble turnips, 
(2) potatoes or oats, sometimes a little mangel or kohl-rabi in 
place of potatoes. The root course is not always taken, and forms 
a third year when it follows rye and precedes oats, with which 
clover and seeds are sown, and remain down three or four years. 
The colonists are made to work at different trades, liavinsr 
some relation to their previous occupation, some being agricul- 
tural labourers, others bakers, tailors, blacksmiths, carpenters, 
weavers, sack-makers, esparto-grass mat-makers, raid almost 
every other kind of industry that can be carried on without the aid 
of steam power. Most of the products are used in the colony. 
Thus the cloth woven (a rough kind of frieze of a khakee colour) 
is used to make dresses for the men and women in the tailoring 
department, but the esparto-grass mats are always sold. The 
women are chiefly occupied as laundresses and seamstresses. 
Tiiere are canteens where the colonists can buy certain luxuries 
with the proportion of their earnings which they receive (a cer- 
tain 211'oportion being kept back until their term is expired) ; 
these include various articles of food, and also tobacco, but no 
intoxicating liquors. The reclamation of waste land is the chief 
means adopted by the Government of the Netherlands for the 
utilisation of the labour of vagrants and vagabonds at these 
colonies, as also it is of other classes, both within and without 
the pale of the law, at other institutions on the same lines. 
Ernest Clarke. 
