The services have been well attended by friends

Lansing.
from the city.

On the first Sabbath in April we organized our Sunday School, which has been sustained with considerable interest. We have devoted to this exercise the hour between nine and ten A. M. We are under obligations to Mr. Rork, Principal of the Lower Town Union School, for the valuable assistance rendered in these morning services.

The excitement consequent upon the unsettled condition of the country, and the frequent calls for men and boys to enter the army and navy, with letters from comrades in the service, created a war spirit among the larger boys of the School. Many were the petitions received, asking the privilege of enlisting and going to the battle-fleld to do and die for their country. This request has been granted to thirty-seven of the oldest boys, on the compliance with the general conditions made by your honorable body, that in each and every case the consent of the parents or guardian of the boy should be obtained. This war spirit did not stop with the boys; it caused the resignation of our Chaplain, Physician, Shoemaker, and one Overseer of the shops.

We have continued the practice of employing the boys as night watch, door keeper, teamster, and chore boys, and as yet have not had an occasion to record an instance of misplaced confidence. In fact, most of the boys have labored with us to maintain neatness and order, and to create such a moral sentiment in the School as to make each boy feel honorably bound to quietly remain in the institution until such time as the officers and Board of Control might think best for him to go. We are satisfied with the apparent contentment and cheerful spirit with which the boys have yielded to this influence.

Gentlemen: Before closing this report, allow me to call your attention to the necessity of the enlargement and reconstruction of our culinary and laundry departments. Some six years ago, an addition was built to the north wing of the Institution, for a kitchen, bakery, laundry, boiler room, etc. This building

was quite sufficient for the size of the School at that time, but now we have entirely outgrown it, and ask that it be enlarged at the earliest possible convenience. The necessity of this will be readily discovered when we tell you that an average of 1,249 pieces are weekly washed in a room twenty-one feet long by twenty feet wide, and that two-thirds of this room is occupied with a brick oven, steam boiler, pumps, etc., leaving only one hundred and forty square feet for this labor to be performed in. We would suggest the building of a dry room. There are many weeks in the year in which it is impossible to dry clothes out of doors. On account of this fact, and that we have no room to dry clothes in doors, sometimes our boys have been obliged to wear garments quite too damp for health.

In conclusion, gentlemen, let me add that it is truly gratifying to know that harmony and unanimity of feeling and purpose have been the ruling spirit of all connected with me, and whatever of good may have been accomplished by our mutual efforts, is alike creditable to all.

With thanks for your frequent counsel and continued kindness, this report is respectfully submitted.

C. B. ROBINSON,

Superintendent.

TEACHER'S REPORT.

To the Hon. Board of Control of the Michigan State Reform School:

GENTLEMEN-The following statistics are respectfully submitted as the Teacher's Report of the School Department in this Institution, for the year ending Nov. 16th, 1864:

The whole number under instruction at the commence

ment of the year was,.

189

There have been received during the year,.

114

Whole number under instruction during the year,... 303

Of the 114 received into the School,

Did not know the alphabet,..

10

Could spell easy words, and commenced in the primer,... 48 Commenced in First Reader,..

19

15

17

4

1

114

IN ARITHMETIC.

46

57

5

5

1

114

81

15

18

Total,.....

.114

Eighty-six have left the School during the year. The follow

ing tables show their attainments in reading, arithmetic and writing when they left the School:

In the Intellectual Arithmetic,.

In the Practical Arithmetic, as far as fractions,....

3

86

40

26

Can make the letters and write their own names,.

32

Can write their own correspondence,...

127

Total,

175

Besides the above, we have had recitations in Geography on Outline Maps.

We have also had a general exercise each day, explaining the principles of Arithmetic, and the boys reciting the definitions and rules in concert.

The two schools are not graded according to the intellectual attainments of the pupils, but according to their size. The

most of the boys who have entered the Institution during the past year have gone into the upper school. The multiplication table, and also the different tables in reduction, have been daily recited by the whole school in concert. We think that most of the boys have committed them to memory.

During a part of the year, I have been aided in the work of imparting instruction to the boys under my care, by Mr. J. Putnam and Miss H. Norton, whose zeal, fidelity and faithfulness in the work are worthy of all praise. Their energy and co-operation in all my plans to advance the interests of the school, have been most satisfactory. We feel that we have not accomplished, either for the mental improvement or moral renovation of these boys, all that we desired. We can only say, that by prayer, precept and labor, we have done what we could. We can only pray that God will more abundantly bless our efforts in the future than in the past. There has been no addition made to the Library during the year.

Hoping that our humble efforts may not only be blessed of God, but that they may also meet in some measure with your approbation, I submit this report.

H. A. BARKER,

Teacher.

REPORT OF TEACHER OF PRIMARY DEPARTMENT.

To the Hon. Board of Control of the State Reform School : GENTLEMEN-Thirty-one boys have been received into the Primary Department of the School during the year ending Nov. 16, 1864. They were placed in classes as follows: Twenty in the Primer, sixteen in the First Reader, four in the Second, and one in the Third.

Twenty-nine of these boys could not write. Only three of them had any knowledge of Arithmetic.

Since only forty-two boys are allowed in this school, as many have been sent out as have entered. Three have been discharged, and twenty-eight have gone to the upper school, as