5. Not only do the vagrants live under such surroundings, but in nearly all instances they and their predecessors have thus created their surroundings. Merxplas and Veenhuizen were as the rest of the heath when they were founded. Today the cold north wind, blowing down from the North Sea, is checked before striking the grounds and buildings of Veenhuizen by forests planted by the colonists a generation or more ago. The large dormitories, accommodating 500 men each, in which the Merxplas colonists sleep, were built by colonists most of whom have passed away. The arable farm land of Merxplas, which now supplies the bulk of the vegetable products needed by the colony, was made fertile by gangs of colonists in previous years who rooted out the weeds and heather and utilized the street sweepings of Antwerp in a mixture of top soil. Shops, churches, officers’ quarters, farm buildings, farm implements and wagons have been built by the colonists in these several institutions. Stock has been bred and raised at the colony and to the maximum extent the colonists are rendered self supporting. In addition, industries are maintained to the maximum extent possible with hand and foot power, it being still a literal principle in the colonies and in the workhouses that by the sweat of his brow shall the colonist earn his bread. Oftentimes the rigor of the work impressed me unpleasantly, particularly the weaving by hand and foot power at Merxplas and at Veenhuizen, which was carried on by many aged men who in our country would seem candidates for an idle almshouse life. In short, one of the important lessons taught by the colonies and the workhouses is that there is in tramps and vagrants (at least in Central Europe) a very large amount of latent productivity, which directed normally and under conditions offering the least resistance can be made financially profitable to the state.