Fourth annual report of the trustees and superintendent of the Ohio State Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth, to the governor of the state of Ohio : for the year 1860.

  • Ohio State Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fourth annual report of the trustees and superintendent of the Ohio State Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth, to the governor of the state of Ohio : for the year 1860. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ]Q expense during the last year for rent and insurance of buildings, for pasturage of cows, for feed for stock, and for vegetables that a farm would supply free of cost, more than one thousand dollars. Good economy requires that these items of expenditure, with which other public institutions are not burdened, should not longer be required, of this Institution. The following letters are in reply to inquiries in regard to the amount of land which it is most desirable to have, in connection with such an Institution as is needed in the State of Ohio : Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble Minded Youth, Media, Pa., May 15, 1860. My Dear Doctor :—I am in receipt of your note of inquiry concerning the quantity of ground necessary for the successful working of an asylum or school for imbeciles. I am decidedly of opinion that a farm is desirable. We occupied eight acres in Germantown, and as you know, removed to this locality, which is a farm of sixty acres, including ten acres of wood land in the rear of our buildings. Our present number of children is sixty-seven, and cut of that number we can lind twelve working boys, and when our household increases to twice its present size, have no doubt at all that we shall find it desirable to add to our acres likewise. The industrial department in such an institution is of the highest importance, and agiicuhuie being the most essential, and the most natural employment, it is best adapted to children such as you and I care for. I trust that your Board will see the wisdom of providing you with a farm of at least forty acres of arable land, and with ample buildings, which should be located upon an elevated and command¬ ing site. The moral effect of fine landscape is more than any of us, I fear, can fully estimate ; I am more and more impressed with its value. Most sincerely your friend, JOSEPH PARISH, M. D, Superintendent. Yew York Asylum for Idiots, Syracuse, May 8th, 1860 My Dear Sir:—In reply to yours of the —- inst, I rejoice that you have all you need for current expenses, and I shall be still more happy to learn that the next Legislature gives you a good farm and money to build with. The education given to idiots must, in the main, be a practical one. They must be taught, if possible, some useful occupation. The longer I am in ’an Institution, the more convinced I am of this. Farm and garden work is the simplest of all labor. The graduates of asylums will always be far better off on a farm than a work-shop, even if capable of learning a trade. We only own but 18 acres, but I have always occupied some 55 acres. This year I have taken a long lease of 20 more, making a farm of some 75 acres. You will observe that a farm enables the Institution, to pi*i vide profitably f< r a certain number ol adult idiots, who are beyond the school-attending age. In my judg¬ ment, a farm oi 75 or 100 acres, is none too large to be connected with an asy-