PENNSYLVANIA. 



667 



sylvania has no school fund, and the annual 

 appropriations of the Legislature for school 

 purposes are limited to about $600,000, the 

 sum expended on public instruction each year 

 is beyond proportion larger, "the people in 

 the several districts voluntarily voting all other 

 moneys necessary to support the schools." 

 The ratio of the increase of the educational 

 interest in the State may be inferred from the 

 aggregate expenditures of the last six years 

 in that behalf, or compared with those of the 

 six years ending with 1866 ; they being as fol- 

 lows : 



Total cost for tuition from 1867 to 1872 $21,578,258 61 



Total cost for tuition from 1861 to 1866 .... 12,745,061 71 



Increase $8,833,196 90 



Total expenditures of the system from 



1867 to 1872 $42,952,152 11 



Total expenditures of the system from 



1861 to 1868 19,590,14951 



Increase. 



The soldiers' orphans are educated at the 

 charge of the State in separate schools. The 

 entire expense of the State for these schools, 

 since they went into operation in 1866, is 

 $3,467,543.11. Their cost during the year 

 1872 was $479,249.47. 



For the diffusion of useful instruction among 

 the people of all classes in Pennsylvania, the 

 Agricultural College stands preeminent. By 

 acts of the Legislature, the purchase of three 

 experimental farms and the establishment of a 

 college have been authorized ; all of them 

 being now in successful operation. Three 

 courses are taught at the college, " agricultural, 

 scientific, and chemical, to all which is added 

 a general course of military instruction." The 

 student may enter himself for any one of the 

 courses at his choice. The number of students 

 in attendance last year was 150 ; among them 

 were 30 young women, whose admission to 

 the college was first permitted about sixteen 

 months ago. 



By an act of the Legislature at the last ses- 

 sion, approved April 12, 1872, a "Bureau of 

 Labor Statistics and of Agriculture," with a 

 commissioner, as head of the department, has 

 been erected, the commissioner appointed, 

 and his office already established at the Capi- 

 tol building. The act defines the functions of 

 the commissioner as follows : " The duties of 

 such officer shall be to collect, compile, and 

 systemize statistics, with reference to the sub- 

 ject of labor in its relations to the social, edu- 

 cational, industrial, and general condition, 

 wages and treatment, of all classes of working- 

 people, and how the same affect our perma- 

 nent prosperity and productive industry. It 

 shall also be the duty of such bureau to col- 

 lect, collate, and classify statistics relating to 

 the mineral, manufacturing, agricultural, and 

 commercial productions of this Common- 

 wealth. The fourth section makes it the duty 

 of the chief of such bureau to report annually 

 to the Legislature, in convenient form, the re- 

 sult of his investigations." 



The following table, published by the Cen- 

 sus Bureau, exhibits the mining industries of 

 Pennsylvania, which is one of the most impor- 

 tant mining States in the Union : 



e* co 



^WIOWW^OXW^W 



I* - o" 



8S :| ;. :-""3 



icT 



, ^r 



11 



SSfe 8 2^I : j j 



" S'd'2-^ <g o 



-o^.2--s.a 



6 oSfca5ccN 

 The Asylum for the Insane, and the other 

 benevolent institutions, located in various parts 

 of the State, but mostly in Philadelphia and 

 Pittsburg, appear to have been excellently 

 managed, and successfully performed the good 



