But the wealth of the country is so great and the opportunities for employment so vast that the hustler can always find employment in some part of the country. Often large numbers of men and women are unable to find employment at any occupation, even when we have prosperous times. Nor are they to blame entirely for this. Many large corporations, such as railroads, will only give employment to the young and vigorous who are able to produce the largest amount of work, which means that the weak and infirm are soon driven to the wall, and at the first opportunity dropped from the pay roll and after a certain age are unable to find employment at anything. At an expenditure of say $100,000, several cheap plants could be erected on Riker’s Island, on Long Island Sound, where domestic articles could be manufactured at merely the cost of the raw material, and this army of tramps that infest the boroughs of Greater New York summer and winter could be made to pay the cost of their own living expenses. For example, ten or a dozen small shops could be erected that would give employment to 2,000 men and women who would produce things that would in no wise compete with the great labor industries of the country. The following are some of the industries that could be carried on by the wards of the city of New York: Broom making, Brush making, Chair caning, Laundry work, Shoe making, Tailoring, And in summer Agriculture and Horticulture. The city could rent a thousand acres of land in Westchester County on which garden produce could be raised and sold to the poor at low figures, which would give employment to from 500 to 1,000 persons. From the middle of April till the middle of October they could live in tents, which in many cases would greatly improve their health. The cultivation of the soil under proper restrictions is a most healthful labor and cannot fail to show good results if properly carried out. French penologists and reformers speak of the system in the highest terms and recommend its adoption all over the world. If necessary these convicts could be used in works of irrigation or canals for the Federal Government, or indeed, the carrying on of public works in any part of the country. M. Demetz, a French philosopher and founder of the Mettray Reformatory in France, has, for many years, advocated the cultivation of large tracts of land by criminals. His motto has been, “Reclaim the land by the man, and the man by the land.” Since 1850 France has had agricultural colonies for young offenders in crime, where they are compelled to stay from six months to two years. They cultivate the soil on a paying basis, and the success and management of the farm colonies has been eminently successful, as only seven per cent. of their numbers return again to crime.