vent the men from becoming idlers and vagabonds and the women prostitutes and the "mothers of a brood of idiots." They then proceed to remark:

*

What will the state do to save them from this hard fate?. What can be done? There is good ground to believe that these people can be grouped together on farms and made self-supporting, or nearly so. It may be that this cannot be done, but we should like permission to try the experiment by leasing a farm for a short term of years. We would erect some plain, cheap buildings for the accommodation of a party of these idiotic men and women. Over these we would place some good man and his wife to superintend the labor of the whole party and make the farm as home-like as possible. A strict account should be kept of all the expenses and earnings. This farm need not adjoin the present grounds of the institution. It may be several miles in the country, where land is cheaper and rents lower than in the immediate vicinity of Lincoln. But it should be under the supervision and control of the board of trustees and superintendent of the asylum. While we have heretofore assisted, and shall hereafter assist the superintendent in all his efforts to educate these idiotic children, we are convinced that their wants are more in the direction of industrial training than of advanced school-room instruction. Any substantial literary acquirement ordinarily lies beyond their reach. All the treasures and delights of literature are sealed as to them. The effort to educate them must be turned more in the direction of industrial employments to be performed under the direction of a mind stronger than their own. It is our purpose, as far as we may, to experiment in this direction. In our judgment the asylum must have more custodial facilities and it should be so enlarged in purpose and in capacity as to embrace epileptics, paralytics, and the deformed and extremely helpless. Charity should be as broad as misfortune. * *For rental of a farm, and the erection of such buildings as will be necessary to enable us to experiment with the labor of our feeble-minded men and women, we recommend an appropriation of ten thousand dollars per annum for the next two years.

Concerning these suggestions of the trustees, the superintendent has nothing to offer in his report; but he contents himself with saying:

We believe that in connection with this establishment there should be a large farm, to be accupied by the large boys of the past school-attending age, and who could be lodged and accommodated in cheap cottages, who could also be educated in farm labor. Of course the products of the farm labor would find a market in the main in the wants of the home institution. There should also be added upon the same farm a home for the female graduates of the school-room, who are orphans and have no homes. A large majority of our pupils are without homes.

We have taken the report of the trustees as the report of the institution; but it is evident that the question of the purchase of any additional land for the asylum at once opens up deeper questions, which we would prefer not to discuss until we have further light upon them, and we therefore make no recommendation whatever on the subject. Given, 4,000 idiots in the state of Illinois: what are we to do with them? If the state is under obligation, or if it is good policy on the part of the state, to assume the custody of adult idiots, then must the state assume the care of the entire four thousand, at an annual cost per capita of two hundred dollars, i. e., a total annual cost of eight hundred thousand dollars? If not, how many of the entire four thousand ought the state to adopt? Where is the line to be drawn? and upon what principle of selection? Suppose one-half of the idiots in the state to be under twenty-one years of age: how many of this two thousand is the state under obligation to educate, or at least to give such training as they are capable of receiving with profit to themselves? If no amount of training will make them capable of self-direction and of earning a livelihood when removed from the care and oversight of the agents appointed by the state, then of what advantage to the state-we do not say, to the idiots is this training? These are questions which have not yet been answered to our satisfaction; but upon the answer to be given to them depends the action to be taken in the matter of enlarged facilities for the care and custody of idiots upon the part of the state. We are not, therefore, prepared to endorse either the proposition of the trustees or of the superintendent.

Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.-The request preferred by the institution for the education of the deaf and dumb rests upon different grounds. This request is in two parts: First, they ask for the purchase of four city lots, immediately fronting the institution. Second, they ask the state to buy fifty-two acres of land, belonging to the estate of Col. James Dunlap, which joins the grounds owned by the institution. Both of these are applications made before to the general assembly and not granted. The request for the four thousand dollars with which to buy the four lots, was first advanced in 1878; and that for ten thousand dollars for the fifty-two-acre tract, in 1890. Meanwhile, the price of the lots has advanced to six thousand dollars, and at that figure we do not recommend their purchase. Concerning the fifty-two acres, Dr. Gillett, the superintendent,

says:

The land owned by the institution is not sufficient to answer its requirements of garden and pasturage, so that for several years we have been obliged to rent land for grazing purposes. There is no article of diet more healthful for children and youth than good milk. Thirty cows are needed to supply the milk required for culinary and table use for the present household. The produce of fifty cows could be used to good purpose. already enters largely into the dietary of the inmates, and could be more extensively used, if the necessary pasture-land was available.

Milk

A tract of land comprising fifty-two acres, which the institution has rented for a number of years, is offered for sale, its former owner, Col. James Dunlap, having died during the last year.

This tract joins a piece of land purchased by the institution several years ago, (through which runs a stream called "The Brook,") for an impounding reservoir, or rather catchbasin, to furnish a water-supply. It was thus used for a number of years, when the city of Jacksonville constructed water-works and contracted to supply the institution with all the water it might require for a period of ten years. The works of the institution were consequently disused and the machinery sold, with the thought that the city would always have an abundance of water, and would gladly, for all time, supply what might be needed by the institution, at reasonable cost. The experience of the last year, however, has shown that the city's water-works are not sufficient to meet the demands of a season of protracted drouth; their supply having been exhausted in the fall of 1879, and not fully replenished till the spring of 1880. The capacity of the city's impounding reservoir has been enlarged during the past year, but the increasing use of the water will soon place the public in the; same condition as before the enlargement was made, unless still further additions are made to the present capabilities of storage. Should this not be done, and should the city, at the expiration of the present contract in 1885, decline to renew the contract or make another to supply the requisite amount of water, it would become necessary to return to the system the institution had formerly practised. On this account, the ownership of the tract of land now needed for pasturage would be of the utmost importance, for the passage of pipes and the construction of an additional reservoir. In view of all these facts, I respectifully suggest that this important purchase be urged upon the general assembly.

Should the general assembly approve the suggestion and authorize the purchase of the land, whenever it became necessary to utilize it for the purpose of furnishing water, the pumps at the brook could be operated by our present engine, by transmission of power through a wire rope running from the engine-room in the industrial building to the pumps, which would be about one mile distant. It would thus be unnecessary to erect any extensive building there, or to procure any boilers, or employ an engineer to operate the machinery. No considerable amount of fuel would be required, for the pumps would then be operated at such times as the engine would be running for other purposes. The water being thus economically pumped into a large reservoir on the eminence included in the tract of land, the purchase of which is proposed, would flow, by the force of gravity, to all parts of the institution building, not excepting the highest attics.

If it should become advisable to connect the other institutions of the state in this locality to it, and supply them from the same source, it could be done by an increase in the size of the reservoir and laying pipes to those institutions, The water that would be gathered at this point would be abundant for all the requirements of the institutions, coming from a water-shed that, by some well-informed persons, is thought to be superior to the one from which the city now obtains its supply.

Southern Insane Hospital. The arguments advanced by the superintendent of the southern hospital for the insane, Dr. Wardner, for the purchase of one hundred and sixty acres of land at Anna, are as follows:

The institution has need of additional land. There is a quarter-section adjacent to the state land, on the east side, which would be of great advantage to the hospital, for the following reasons: (1). More room is needed there, because the stables are located near the line. (2). In building the barracks, we had to get permission to set a part of the structure over the line. Since it is desirable to change the barracks into a permanent cottage, the state should own the land on which they stand. (3). The sewer runs across

a corner of this land, and empties into a creek which meanders across it for more than a half-mile. The sewage polluting the stream becomes pretty well oxydized before running upon other lands. Complaints have occasionally been made concerning this sewage as a nuisance. If the state owned this tract of land, no trouble would be likely to arise from this source. (4). There is a bed of gravel along the creek upon this land, ample for all future uses in making roads and walks, and keeping them in repair. (5). Should the hospital ever do its own slaughtering, this land will be required to keep the additional stock and beef-cattle necessary for that purpose. The present amount of land is all needed for pasture and for raising corn, hay and oats, for the stock now kept, and vegetables for the house.

The purchase of this quarter-section was recommended by the joint visiting committee of the thirty-second general assembly, and I feel satisfied that any person who will come and examine the subject properly must approve of the proposition to purchase it, which can now be done for forty dollars an acre.

Eastern Insane Hospital.-Last, but not least, the trustees of the Kankakee hospital say:

Another very important and greatly needed addition to the resources of the hospital is a larger quantity of land. The trustees point with some pride to the productions of the farm and garden, and the saving thereby effected, and recommend the purchase of more land in order to keep most economically its population, which, as soon as the buildings now in course of construction are completed, will number over six hundred, without reference to the numbers to be provided for by this assembly. To promote the health of the inmates and economy in food at the same time, there is no one thing so effective as the maintenance of a herd of cattle for supplying milk in liberal quantities, and also for beef. With two hundred and fifty or three hundred acres of grazing and meadow land added to the state farm, a return for the expense of the purchase far outweighing the comparatively small outlay would be secured. A tract of land adjoining that already belonging to the state, well adapted, after being thoroughly drained, for the above purposes, can probably be secured at a reasonable cost per acre. The farm has been well managed during the past year; and under such management, the very great advantages to be derived from an increase in amount of land become strikingly apparent.

To which the superintendent adds:

The statement that the whole amount of land belonging to the state is three hundred and twelve acres, and that sixty acres are taken up with buildings and grounds, while twenty-five are unproductive, will be sufficient to convince those fa.niliar with farming operations that we need more land; especially when they take into account the amount of farm and garden produce required to support an establishment of nearly six hundred people, and one which has a near prospect of being obliged to accommodate a still larger number. Insufficiency of crops and stocks follows, as a matter of course, from the small amount of land. The main deficiency of the farm is in grazing and meadow-land. The institution ought to maintain at the present time not less than seventy-five milch-cows; and to have, in addition, sufficient pasturage in the grazing season, and hay in the winter, to feed fifteen or twenty beef-cattle kept on hand for slaughtering as needed.

With respect to the subject of the purchase of additional land for our state institutions, we desire to present some general remarks.

The number of acres now owned and occupied by the several institutions included in this report is as follows:

The amount of live-stock has been given already (see page 71); but to this should be added the sheep and beef-cattle on the hoof, not included in that statement.

The value of the farm and garden products, for the fiscal years 1881-82, so far as shown in the biennial report of the institutions, is exhibited in the following table: