NEW JERSEY. 



5G7 



same as that used in the United States Army. 

 The dress hat has been changed for the helmet. 

 The reserve militia force of the State is esti- 

 mated approximately at 223,914 men. 



In the State Lunatic Asylum, at Trenton, 

 550 patients were under treatment at the close 

 of the year 303 males and 247 females. The 

 whole number of cases treated during the year 

 was 672 ; 49 were discharged cured, 26 im- 

 proved, 9 incurable, and 38 died. The total 

 number treated since 1848 has been 5,661, of 

 whom 3,491 have been returned recovered or 

 improved. The practice of confining insane 

 convicts with the other patients is deprecated 

 by the managers. The messages of the Govern- 

 ors have expressed disapproval of this policy 

 at different times. There were thirty-six of 

 these in the asylum at the end of the year. 

 The branch asylum at Morris Plains makes an 

 equally favorable showing. The indigent, mute, 

 feeble-minded, and blind children receive in- 

 struction in institutions outside of the State, 

 and the establishment of State institutions for 

 the purpose is not advised. 



The Boys' Reform School, at Jamesburg, is 

 organized on the cottage, or family, system, 

 and has a very thorough and successful method 

 of discipline, instruction, and encouragement 

 for the reformation of juvenile offenders. There 

 were 270 in the school at the beginning of the 

 year and 258 at its close. The total number of 

 commitments since 1867 has been 1,051 970 

 white and 81 colored. The daily net cost for 

 maintenance per capita, including clothing, is 

 twenty-one cents. The school is under the 

 superintendence of James H. Eastman. The 

 buildings and grounds are pleasant, and are 

 made as free from the suggestion of restraint 

 as ordinary boarding-schools. The principal 

 occupation of the boys is making and laundry- 

 ing shirts, at which they work seven hours a 

 day. A good number are employed also on 

 the farm, and others in brickmaking, black- 

 smithing, baking, tailoring, etc. The means of 

 the school do not admit of instructing all the 

 boys in trades. In the shirt-factory the boys 

 become very skillful, and their earnings are 

 enough to greatly reduce the cost of the insti- 

 tution. The shop-building cost $13,000, and 

 the receipts for the work done in it in the first 

 four years amounted to $33,800. The school 

 has been in existence fifteen years, and is con- 

 sidered one of the most successful of its kind. 

 There is also an Industrial School for Girls at 

 Jamesburg. It is on a much smaller scale, and 

 in the last report is stated to be overcrowded. 



From the report of the State Board of Health, 

 it appears that the year has been unusually free 

 from fatal disease, and that the number of 

 deaths was about 1,000 less than in 1879. There 

 has, however, been more disease of a remittent 

 or malarial type. The local boards of health 

 are increasing in number, and improving in 

 activity and efficiency. The investigation of 

 diseases of animals indicates that the danger 

 from that source has not been appreciated; 



that pleuro-pneumonia has not been extirpated, 

 but still occurs in some localities, and requires 

 close watching lest it become endemic in the 

 State. 



The Geological Survey has, with its topo- 

 graphical and other labors, made an examina- 

 tion of the fire-clays found in New Jersey, and 

 their respective degrees of infusibility. " They 

 have also given attention to the question of 

 water-supply for cities and seaside resorts. 

 There have been a number of new iron-mines 

 opened during the year. The survey advise 

 caution in risking capital in mining for other 

 metals than iron and zinc in the State. 



The returns of the assessors show a total 

 valuation of the property of the State of 

 $518,617,518, against $508,892,338 in 1879. 

 Until 1880 the valuation of taxable property 

 showed a steady decline since 1874, the de- 

 crease from that year's valuation to that of 

 1879 amounting to over $110,000,000. This 

 variance is attributed only partly to the gen- 

 eral decline in values. The defects in the sys- 

 tem of assessment are supposed to account in 

 a large measure for the decrease. 



The report of Secretary of State Kelsey on 

 the savings-banks shows that the assets of the 

 thirty-four savings-banks in the State on Janu- 

 ary 1, 1880, were $18,361,011; their total lia- 

 bilities, $17,533,055; the total number of de- 

 positors, 68,457. The increase in the amount 

 of assets over that of the previous year was 

 $1,771,120; in the liabilities, $1,721,008; in 

 the surplus of assets over liabilities, $53,111 ; 

 in the number of depositors, 5,467. The in- 

 crease in assets was mainly in Government 

 bonds. 



The Bureau of Labor and Statistics is very 

 active in collecting information regarding the 

 material welfare of the Commonwealth. Its 

 report contains a chapter on the condition of 

 the public highways. The roads of the United 

 States are declared by Governor McClellan 

 to be inferior in proportion to the amounts 

 expended upon them to those of any other 

 country. The bureau recommends the en-' 

 couragement of silk-culture by the State. It 

 appears that New Jersey already manufac- 

 tures sixteen million dollars ($16,000,000) of 

 the thirty million dollars ($30,000,000) pro- 

 duced in the United States, and consumes more 

 than sixty (60) per cent, of the raw silk im- 

 ported into the United States. The Legislature 

 in 1879 authorized the payment of bounties for 

 the cultivation of certain fibrous plants. A 

 beginning has been made in flax-culture. A 

 number of Irish spinners to whom specimens 

 of flax raised in New Jersey were shown have 

 expressed their intention, if the hopes of the 

 bureau regarding flax-culture are realized, of 

 establishing factories in the State. The culture 

 of jute, it is believed, can be profitably car- 

 ried on in south New Jersey, as indicated by 

 experiments in Virginia. 



The Commission of Fisheries has seen to the 

 regular though judicious enforcement of the 



