HORTILULTURE AT THE ST. CLOUD REFORMATORY. 437 



HORTICULTURE AND INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENT 

 AT THE ST. CLOUD REFORMATORY. 



S. R. HOULTON, MINN. SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE. 



To deprive the inmates of any penal institution of employment 

 is recog-nized in all civilized countries as really cruel. In an institu- 

 tion like the state reformatory, it should serve not merely to keep 

 the mind and body occupied, as a matter of economy to the 

 state, but also as an industrial training- for the inmates. This ia 

 emphasized by the fact that out of the 130 convicts now in the re- 

 formatory 80 per cent are between sixteen and twenty-one years of 

 ag-e, and very few of them have any trade. 



Some of the various lines of work carried on there are the tinwork, 

 plumbing, blacksmithing and carpentry for the institution and the 

 making of shoes and clothing for the inmates. These thiugs are 

 done in separate shops and by different boys. Then there is a granite 

 quarry in connection w^ith the institution. The stone is quarried; 

 cut and dressed by the boys, and when a new building is being 

 erected the stone is laid by them. An effort ia made to select boys 

 for these places who seem most adapted to them. Thus they all get 

 practical training in one or more of these several trades. 



The reformatory also has about 700 acres of land, much of which is 

 wild at present. It is used to furnish supplies for the institution as 

 well as employment and industrial training for the inmates. The 

 present superintendent is improving the farm by making new fields, 

 meadows and tame grass pastures for the raising of corn and fodder 

 to support a stock of cattle, hogs and horses. He is also putting- 

 up new- out-buildings for their greater accommodation. This will 

 obviate the necessity of buying so much of the dairy and meat sup- 

 plies from outside, which should be produced on the farm. 



Aa regards horticulture at the reforinatory, the supplies of gar- 

 den produce, and more especially vegetables, are quite largely 

 raised on the farm. It is now planned to make this branch more ex- 

 tensive by canning fruit and vegetables for the winter use of the in- 

 mates and the fifteen or twenty employes who are boarded by the 

 institution. There is now an area of twenty or twenty-five acres de- 

 voted to the growing of small fruit, mostly strawberries, currants 

 and red raspberries. A few grape vines and a small orchard of ap- 

 ples and plums have been started, but it ia necessarily only a begin- 

 ing, as the institution itself is but seven or eight years old. They 

 are, however, all doing well, and both orchard and vineyard will un- 

 doubtedly be increased in the near future. Flowers, too, are not neg- 

 lected. The reformatory has quite a large greenhouse, and during- 

 summer the walks and drives are lined and the grounds decorated 

 by a profusion of flowers. 



The extension of horticulture at the reformatory, it is hoped, will 

 be advantageous in several ways: 



First. It will furnish valuable food supplies to be used in the 

 boarding of both officers and inmates. In caae of a surplus, there 

 ia a good market near by where it can be profitably disposed of. 



Second. It will supply the boys with light, pleasant and interest- 

 ing employment having a reformatory influence. 



