of which are enclosed by a high board fence, and the building in front. Within the enclosure are located the shops, and other buildings belonging to the Institution, except the barn and tool-house. Ten acres are under constant cultivation, on a portion of which is planted an orchard of two hundred and ninety-two thrifty young fruit trees, apple, pear, plum and cherry. The remaining sixteen acres are used as pasturage and lawn.

The yard in front of the building, containing five acres, is surrounded by a neat picket fence, and laid out in drives and walks, and ornamented with trees and shrubs.

The grounds enclosed by the high fence are devoted to the pleasure and comfort of the boys, on a portion of which a gymnasium is erected, which adds materially to their health and enjoyment.

The center building of the house proper fronts west, and is forty-eight feet wide, fifty-six feet deep, and four stories high. There are two wings, extending north and south, each ninety-five feet long, thirty-three feet deep, and three stories high, excepting the towers at the extremities, which are four stories high. On the first or ground floor of the center building are a kitchen and dining room for the Superintendent, a store-room and laundry. On the second floor are a reception room, parlor, Superintendent's office and private room. On the third floor are rooms for the officers and employés. On the fourth floor is the Chapel, suitably arranged, and furnished for seating four hundred persons.

On the first floor of the north wing are the dining hall and wash room for the boys. Adjoining the dining-hall, in a small addition, are the kitchen, bakery and boiler-room, the latter being also used as a laundry for the boys.

On the second floor of the north wing are the hospital, medicine room, a dormitory, arranged for sleeping 42 of the smallest boys, an 1 bedrooms for officers and employès. On the

*This company of boys compose the Primary Department, and retire one hour earlier in the evening than tucs in the second department.

first floor of the south wing are a school-room, seated for fortytwo boys, an ironing-room, and a tailor's shop. On the second floor are a large school-room, capable of seating one hundred and sixty boys, two recitation rooms, and a library. The upper floors of the two wings are arranged with dormitories, and furnish separate sleeping apartments for one hundred and fiftytwo boys. All the rooms in the building are warmed by means of stoves.

A brick shop, twenty-five by eighty feet, two stories high, containing four rooms, has just been erected in the north-east corner, of the yard, affording abundant room for the employment of eighty boys; adjoining which is an engine room, twenty by twenty-five feet.

EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF CONTROL.

To the Superintendent of Public Instruction:

SIR: In compliance with the provisions of the laws, the undersigned Board of Control of the State Reform School, respectfully submit their annual report of the condition and progress of the Institution.

The reports of the officers having in charge the different departments of the School, which are herewith annexed, give a detailed statement of what has been accomplished in their respective fields of labor.

The health of the Institution has Leen better than usual, only one inmate having died, and no severe disease having been prevalent.

By the report of the Superintendent, it will be seen that the numbers in the School have increased during the year from 189 to 217, and that the number now in the Institution would have been much larger, had not a considerable number been allowed to enlist in the military service of their country.

The same report contains full statements of the manner in which the boys have been employed during the year, and of the results of their labors. The Board have steadily followed out

the plan announced in their last report, of finding work for the boys on account of the State, without the intervention of contractors, and are confirmed in the belief, that this plan will be better for the inmates of the School, and more advantageous to the State. In effecting this, four shops are to be organized, which, in the aggregate, will contain more than 100 boys. Three of these will be devoted to the manufacture of cane and flag seats for chairs, and one to manufactures of wood. Three of these shops, containing 75 boys are now in successful operation.

In another shop are employed 42 small boys in the braiding of palm hats, under the direction of two female teachers. This business is not very profitable to the State in a pecuniary point of view; but it furnishes employment for those who cannot work at other branches, and accustoms the boys, many of whom never worked at any regular labor, to habits of application and industry.

The great advance in wages, and in the cost of subsistence, has rendered it necessary for the Board to make a temporary increase of compensation to most of the officers and employès of the Institution. This was alike due to their necessities, and to the fact that their places could not have been filled at the same wages which had been previously paid.

The greatest need of the Reform School, for several years past, has been a never failing supply of good water. The Legislature, at its last session, made an appropriation of $2,000 for an artesian well on the premises. The boring of such a well has been prosecuted through the summer, but its completion has been unfortunately delayed by the contractor losing the sinker in the well, at the depth of more than three hundred feet. The indications of abundant and good water, at a moderate depth, continue favorable; and the work will be completed at as early a day as possible. The expenditures which have been incurred for this purpose thus far, will be found stated in the report of the treasurer.

The increase in the number of inmates in the School renders

The original

necessary a larger provision for sleeping rooms. plan of the Institution proposed that each boy should have a room for himself, 5 by 7 feet. One hundred and fifty-two such rooms have been built, each of which is now occupied by one tenant. But as there are 217 boys, 24 of these are lodged in the halls, while 42 of the youngest occupy one large room, which is kept lighted and warmed, under the care of an older boy, who acts as watchman for his companions. This last mode of lodging the younger boys is found to be much cheaper than to build a separate room for each: a large number can be accommodated in a much smaller space: they are more comfortable in winter than in separate, cold rooms; and the most perfect order and propriety of conduct can be maintained. The Board, therefore, propose to build rooms on this plan large enough to lodge comfortably 100 more boys. The expenses of construction will be paid by the direct labor of the boys who may be employed on the building, and by the proceeds of the labor of the boys in the shops.

The progress in the literary department of the school is believed to be greater than ever before. The intellectual grade from which the scholar starts in the career of mental improvement is, in many cases, much below that of the common schools of the country. In their mathematical exercises, not a few of the pupils have to be taught how to count correctly before they can add or subtract numbers. The changes in the school are so rapid that instances of advanced scholarship are necessarily rare; and while many are thus benefitted in part, in the lower branches, few are made into perfect scholars. Yet the proficiency made by the pupils in reading and writing, and in the ability of expressing thoughts on paper, which grows out of their habit of writing many letters, is all that could be expected, and will be eminently useful to them in their future years. Some of the letters appended to this report were written by boys who did not know the alphabet when received into the Institution.

The Treasurer's report contains a very full statement of the receipts and expenditure for the past year, with an estimate of the amount necessary for current expenses for the ensuing year. The rise in prices has been so great that the appropriation of $15,000 per annum, made by the Legislature two years since-an amount smaller than that allowed for previous years --has been quite inadequate; and the Board have been compelled to make a loan and incur other liabilities to keep the boys in meat, bread and clothes. An appropriation of $14,000 will be needed to make up the deficiency which will accrue to the first of January next; and $22,000 per annum is the smallest amount with which the current expenses of the Institution can be paid during the next two years.

This may seem to some. a large amount to be paid by the State for a single charitable institution. But the Reform School, although a noble charity, is not to be viewed exclusively in that light. Leaving out of view all the benefit conferred on the inmates-and it is believed that every inmate receives some permanent good-and considering the School merely as an agency for saving dellars and cents to the public, by preventing directly the commission of crime, it is an institution with which the State cannot afford to dispense. If it were desirable to try its usefulness by so low a standard, it might be shown that it is cheaper for the State to keep 217 criminal and vicious boys in the Reform School than to keep the same number in jails, boarded at the expense of the local authorities, or to permit them to run at large in a continuous career of crime, with all the attendant expenses of property stolen and destroyed, and the fees paid to sheriff's, constables, lawyers and judges for the arrest, trial, sentence and imprisonment of each individual boy. The report of the Superintendent shows that 114 boys were received last year, and of these 91 were sentenced for larceny: and that the amount stolen by these 91, at one act of stealing, as shown by the papers of commitment, was $2,640 69. The same proportion extended would show that the amount stolen at one time by 217 boys, and for which they were committed,