TK\NKSM:I:. 



725 



maintenance, $H7.000 ; for building and repairs. 

 makin- :i total <f |40,000. The report 

 shows i lie nceil of an appropriation of $40,000 

 for KM) pupils, and then an extra appropriation 

 for necessary repairs and purchases. 



The Industrial School reports 816 inmates. A 



girls' department has been added. It lias le< -onie 



-ary to rent three additional buildings for 



tin increased work of the school. It cost the 



State $22.386.81 for the biennial period. 



The Wat kins Institute, though supported by 

 private benefaction, is under the care of the State. 

 A iii^ht-school is maintained for four months in 

 the year, with 5 teachers and 375 pupils. 



Tin- Lunatic Asylums received during 1891-2 

 the amount of $369,521.33. 



The Stale Prison. This institution is greatly 

 overcrowded. It is small and badly ventilated, 

 and has accommodations for only 320 inmates. 

 There were 340 before the trouble at Tracy City, 

 and when the 350 were sent from that place, 

 some were compelled to sleep on the stone floors 

 of the wings, while two were placed in each cell ; 

 and 290 more were afterward sent on. The leas- 

 ing of convict labor has enabled the State to get 

 along without more penitentiary room, and left 

 it unprovided for an emergency like that of 

 August last. 



The Comptroller's report shows that $24,997.- 

 87 was expended for building and repairs at the 

 prison during 1891-2. The amounts received 

 from lessees were $97,020.68, with $114,000 yet 

 due, according to the claim made by the State. 



Agriculture. A "Less-cotton Convention" 

 was field in Memphis, Jan. 8. The low price of 

 cotton caused by the large crop of 9,000,000 bales 

 in 1891 reduced the whole cotton-producing sec- 

 tion to the verge of financial ruin. In order to 

 start a movement to induce the farmers of those 

 States to reduce their cotton acreage and increase 

 the quantity of food crops, the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture called the convention, " to be com- 

 posed of representatives of the Department of 

 Agriculture of the interested states, of planters, 

 of delegates from the Cotton and Merchants' Ex- 

 change and from the agricultural societies, and 

 of all others who were interested directly or in- 

 directly in the attainment of the object had in 

 view. The 20 per cent, reduction recommended 

 I v this convention as necessary in order to make 

 trie cultivation of cotton once more profitable was 

 not reached, but the report of the United States 

 Commissioner of Agriculture shows a reduction 

 of sixteen and five-tenths per cent, in acreage, 

 and a reduction of about 2,000,000 bales in yield, 

 the decrease being attributed, in a large measure, 

 to the small acreage. As a result of this reduced 

 supply of cotton, prices advanced 40 per cent, 

 and the farmers in the cotton section by means 

 of the increased food crops are better prepared 

 for the cultivation of the next year's crop." 



The yield of the cotton crop this year was esti- 

 mated in November at 47.3 per cent, against 72.8 

 per cent, in 1891. The corn yield, which was 

 89.6 in 1891, was 78.2 in 1892. 



Railroads. Some progress has been made in 

 the building of the Nashville and Knoxville, or 

 Crawford road. When the contractors reached 

 the gap for which the Nashville, Chattanooga & 

 St. Louis Railway claimed it had a right of way 

 and where some grading was done by it last year, 



that road enjoined the Crawfords from taking 

 possession of the pass, but Chancellor Webb dis- 

 solved the injunction, the Crawfords entering into 

 a $30,000 bond to reimburse the Nashville, t hat- 

 tanooga & St. Louis if so decided by a court on 

 final adjudication of the claims of both roads. 

 This road will lead to the oil field, which now 

 bids fair to be one of the most important in the 

 country. 



A receiver was appointed in July for the 

 Memphis and Charleston road. Owing to the 

 depression of business, the net earnings of the 

 road fell short of those of the preceding year by 

 $175,000, and in addition the company was com- 

 pelled to build a drawbridge near Florence at a 

 cost of $80,000, so that it could not meet the 

 interest on its bonds. 



River Improvement. A new organization, to 

 be known as the " Mississippi River Improve- 

 ment Association," was formed in Memphis, May 

 13. Its object is to co-operate with the National 

 Mississippi River Commission and urge upon 

 Congress the necessity of carrying out promptly 

 the recommendations of that body. The design 

 is to include in the membership every civil en- 

 gineer and capitalist of the hundreds of river towns 

 in the Mississippi Valley, and to proceed with 

 method. No improvement will be pressed before 

 Congress until it has stood the test of scientific 

 examination and been approved by this organiza- 

 tion. 



Convict Labor Troubles. Another disturb- 

 ance broke out this year in the mining district 

 northwest of Knoxville, where the Tennessee 

 Coal, Iron and Railroad Company employs con- 

 victs leased from the State. The chronic dis- 

 satisfaction of the miners a't being compelled to 

 compete with convict labor was intensified by the 

 fact that as the work grew slack the free miners 

 were worked on short time, while the convicts 

 were kept at full time. Trouble was feared in 

 July, but apparently no unusual precautions were 

 taken. The miners were perhaps emboldened by 

 the fact that the rioters of 1891 had escaped 

 without punishment, and believed that by a few 

 bold strokes they might succeed in causing a 

 change in the convict-labor law and thus rid 

 themselves forever of the hated competition. 



The first attack was made at Tracy City on the 

 morning of Aug. 13. The guards at the stock- 

 ade were overpowered, the convicts were brought 

 out, and the stockade was burned. The cdhvicts 

 and guards were placed on a train and started 

 for Nashville. Not a shot was fired by either 

 side. Thirteen of the convicts escaped from the 

 train, having disconnected the car they were in. 

 Five of these were recaptured, one killed, one 

 badly wounded, and six made good their escape. 

 There were 362 convicts in all at Tracy City. 



The next attack was made on Inman by the 

 mob from Tracy City, and the operations at 

 Tracy City were repeated, except that the stock- 

 ade was pulled down instead of burned ; 282 

 convicts and 27 guards were taken to the station 

 at Victoria and sent away. The stockade was 

 not burned, as there is a high trestle of the 

 branch road built above it, which would also 

 have burned, making work in the mines impossi- 

 ble. No free miners were employed at Inman. 



On the night of the 16th, a company of miners 

 from Coal Creek, Jellico, and other places, seized 



