for the same reason as given for cattle, viz: lack of sufficient land for pasture and hay.

The State Hospital at Independence as will be seen by the table is the only institution where sheep are kept, and it is made possible there for the reason of the large acreage, as in addition to the 660 acres owned by the state it has been possible to lease over 400 acres. With sufficient land at our state hospitals sheep could be kept at each, and congenial employment would thus be furnished to a number of patients in caring for them, and mutton and lamb supplied the table with little expense.

It will be seen by the foregoing table that the state owns in the aggregate 4,349.5 acres divided among fourteen institutions, a large part necessarily covered with buildings, and when the grounds used for pleasure and recreation, the orchards and groves, gardens, highways, timber and waste land are deducted, it is apparent that the acreage remaining for cultivation, pasture and hay, is entirely inadequate. The acreage being limited, it has been necessary to continuously crop the arable land, and the soil, so long deprived of food and rest, in its exhausted condition, even with the most intensive cultivation, cannot be expected to produce the best crops, or give satisfactory returns for the labor expended.

The manure from the barns of the state farms is largely used for garden purposes, and the only means by which the farm land. can be fed, or rested, is by a scientific system of rotation of crops, keeping at least one-half of all the arable land in grass, clover largely predominating. More cows should be kept than it is now possible to do, for milk is almost an indispensable article of food, and its use at state institutions should only be limited by the

ability of the inmates to consume it. Instead of 651 cows as at present there should be at least double that number, and even then there would not be to exceed 800 or 900 cows giving milk all the time. At present, cows as they become aged, or of little value for milk, are fattened and slaughtered, their places being supplied by fresh young cows, purchased as soon as possible, but it is readily seen that there must of necessity be always a large number of farrow cows that must be kept and fed. As it requires at least two acres of good grass land to properly pasture a cow during the season, and as hay and corn fodder must be provided for winter, it is apparent that the farm land in connection with our state institutions is entirely inadequate for the wants of the wards of the state in furnishing them at all times an adequate supply of milk.

Potatoes being almost indispensable, a large acreage is required to supply the wants of eight thousand people in our state institutions, and with sweet corn, beans, turnips, oats, rye, the straw for bedding, and the grain ground at the local mills for meal, with broom corn and other field products, that can be produced and utilized, it is readily apparent that a large acreage of land in connection with our state institutions would not only conduce to the welfare of the inmates, but at the same time aid materially in reducing the expense of support, the labor required, usually the most expensive item, being furnished without cost and with. positive benefit to the inmates. Before preparing this chapter, the opinion of the chief executive officers of the state institutions in regard to the purchase of additional land, was requested and we submit herewith brief extracts from some of the letters received.

Snperintendent G. H. Hill, of the state hospital at Independence, writes:

"It is not possible to get too much land for any of the institutions. We could this year keep two or three times as many hogs if we had corn to feed them, but I do not know that it is good economy for us to buy large quantities of corn to feed hogs.

"There is no such thing as having too much milk in an institution of this kind. It is the best food for invalids as well as children. The more of it used, the less coffee and tea required, the less meat and the less solid food of other kinds. Many patients are old and without teeth; there are patients here too demented and stupid to masticate solid food properly; some are melancholy and have an aversion for all kinds of food, conse

quently milk is the best article of diet that can be supplied, besides milk is more easily digested than some other kinds of food and the digestive powers of patients suffering from nervous prostration and other debilitated conditions are weak. A great variety of cooking can be done with corn meal, bread, rice, etc., if the cooks are supplied with an abundance of milk. Oat meal is one of the best foods that can be furnished for breakfast, for a large portion of the insane. It can be used every other morning in the week and on a pinch every morning for a time, consequently oat meal porridge, corn meal mush and rice can be used to a much better advantage as an article of food if there is milk to be used with it. Bread and milk is a convenient food to give patients for supper occasionally. Bulk oysters are very desirable in winter time to be served as hot soup, if milk is plenty and milk stew can be made, making what is considered by almost every patient a luxury; at the same time the nourishment is more. in the milk used in the stew than in the oysters.

When we come to think of the amount of ground that can be used to a good advantage for pleasure purposes, for orchards, for small fruits, for vegetables and for buildings, I think your statements are correct in estimating that there should be two acres for each inmate of each state institution. The inmates themselves do not enjoy being cramped up on a small piece of ground, with the grass all worn off of the surface, or by being obliged to resort in the same spot every time they go out of doors. If the grounds are ample they can change their resort occasionally with satisfaction."

Superintendent Max E. Witte of the State hospital at Clarinda writes:

"I may say in addition that we urgently need from 400 to 500 acres of good agricultural land in addition to the above for the reason that a good share of the land now owned by the state is rather rough and rolling and should be in pasture. The state does not own sufficient farm land to raise corn and oats, the greater part of which we have to buy. Besides the acreage is to limited to allow a proper rotation of crops. But above all, the state needs more land to afford facilities for employing ablebodied patients in pleasant work, to which they have been accustomed, and which would be of decided benefit to them, both mentally and physically."

C. F. Applegate, superintendent of the State Hospital at Mt. Pleasant, writes:

"The greater part of the farm cannot be cultivated to any great advantage, because of the poor soil and because there has not been a proper rotation of crops, and the land is not in condition to be productive.

"Of the amount under cultivation, for garden, we have but twenty acres. We should have forty acres at least, but there is no suitable ground, convenient to the hospital, for a good garden. If we are allowed an appropriation for a farmer's cottage, we should have a garden of twenty acres more on the Knox farm, as there is productive land one-half mile from the hospital that may be used for a garden.

"There are quite a number of ravines running through the farm causing waste land amounting to fully ten acres. All of this is used or counted with the pasture land, but it is very poor pasture, and should be tile-drained.

"We should have at least 500 acres more land, as we have twenty head of horses and fully 250 ready and willing patients here to do farm work."

Commandant C. C. Horton of the Soldiers' Home at Marshalltown, writes:

"In this connection, allow me to call your attention to the showing made for the year ending June 30, 1901. During the summer of 1900 we rented nine acres of potato ground, which made our total acreage under cultivation forty-two and onefourth. The value of farm products during that year at wholesale prices amounted to $3,453.17.

"The amount received from the sale of hogs for the same period was $356.95. Deducting the cost of labor and feed purchased, we have $540 to the credit of our hog account.

"The chicken account for that period, which is included in the figures already given, is as follows: 1761 dozen eggs, valued at $209.11; 237 chickens consumed at hospital.

"The members of the home are reaching an age that renders them incapable, with very few exceptions, of doing the work on a farm, and we would have to rely on outside help altogether in operating a large farm. I would be glad if we could secure from thirty to fifty acres near the home, suitable for raising late potatoes. We have not succeeded very well with late potatoes on our sandy soil."

F. M. Powell, superintendent of the Institution for FeebleMinded Children at Glenwood, writes in regard to land:

"You will notice that we have forty-six acres of land in field

and garden crops, but were it not that we were renting forty acres of pasture land we should not be able, with our present acreage, to till any of the state land.

"The number of milch cows and cattle on the place is sixtyseven for which we have, for pasture and hay land, 144 acres of the state land. It would seem necessary that additional land should be secured for the institution, as the farm should contain at least 640 acres."

M. T. Gass, superintendent of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home at Davenport, writes:

"In keeping the herd of cows necessary to furnish the milk needed for the home, we could easily make use of 100 or 120 acres more land, and with profit, I think, to the state."

From the foregoing it will be seen that there is but one opinion among those who are in a position to know the needs of the state institutions in regard to the necessity of more land, not alone for the value of the crops that can be produced, but also in furnishing healthful employment for the inmates.

STATE PENITENTIARY AT FORT MADISON.

While the penitentiary at Fort Madison is the oldest institution in the state, there is not an acre of arable land in connection with the prison. Neither potatoes, onions, cabbage or any garden vegetable is produced, all articles of this kind being purchased. Forty or eighty acres of good land, devoted to garden purposes and cultivated by the convicts, would prove of great benefit in supplying vegetables for the institution and at the same time. afford the better class of prisoners recreation in the open air.

STATE PENITENTIARY AT ANAMOSA.

The State Penitentiary at Anamosa is more fortunate, having sixty acres of farm land, and, although poor in quality, it produces a fair supply of vegetables. In addition there is also eighty acres known as the state quarry, and of this land twentyfour acres have been cleared of timber and have been of late producing potatoes. There are also fifteen acres in pasture which allows a few cows to be kept for furnishing milk for the sick. An addition of forty acres of good land could be used with great. benefit to the prison.

COLLEGE FOR THE BLIND AT VINTON.

The farm in connection with the College for the Blind at Vinton comprises forty acres and two town lots, the latter used for