Cows

In addition to agriculture, cattle breeding was set up at the end of the nineteenth century: four hundred cows were stationed in Wortel, pig barns were built in Merksplas. In addition, the vagrants were put to work planting forests, because the nutrient-poor sandy soil turned out to be an ideal substrate for pine trees. The wood from the forest plots was used for the arms industry (charcoal was an important ingredient of gunpowder until the First World War) and for 'ash fertilization': by scattering ash on the sparse agricultural plots, the soil became more fertile. Crops were grown in the fields.

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