808 



WISCONSIN. 



apportionment from the one mill tax is 

 116.14. There are 190 high schools in Wiscon- 

 sin, and 15 normal schools. The sum expended 

 for school purposes is more than $4,000,000, 

 exclusive of the amount paid to the State Uni- 

 versity. 



During the year the State Superintendent 

 issued a pamphlet containing suggestions for 

 securing the best results from the observance of 

 Arbor day. He also issued a new edition of the 

 school laws of Wisconsin for the use of school 

 officers, and a pamphlet relating to school libra- 

 ries, in which he says : "No money expended for 

 school purposes in this State, during the past 

 year, has done so much good, on the whole, in 

 proportion, as that invested in school libraries." 



University Dairy Certificates were issued this 

 year for the first time. To obtain a certificate, 

 the student must complete the twelve-weeks' 

 course at the university, pass satisfactory exami- 

 nations in all the branches, and subsequently 

 have one season's experience either in a cheese- 

 factory or a dairy. If he had no experience 

 previous to his course in the university, he must 

 spend two years in the cheese-factory or dairy ; 

 he must likewise be the head of the factory, and 

 not an assistant. The students never have any 

 difficulty in securing places, for the demand is 

 far greater than the supply. One of the students 

 in 1892 was 64 years of age. 



The Farm Institutes, meeting at different 

 points in the State, were 94 in number. Bulle- 

 tin No. 6 of the Wisconsin Farm Institutes was 

 issued in December. In these bulletins every 

 subject relating in any way to farming, stock- 

 raising, and agricultural instruction is taken up, 

 long and exhaustive treatises are written upon 

 each, and they are then discussed. 



Prof. Richard T. Ely, late of Johns Hopkins 

 University, was made director and professor of 

 political economy of the new Wisconsin School 

 of History and Economics, founded in the Uni- 

 versity a year ago, and opened in September. 

 The other members of the faculty are : John B. 

 Parkinson, professor of civil polity and political 

 economy ; Frederick J. Turner, professor of 

 American history ; Charles H. Haskins, profes- 

 sor of constitutional history ; Walter A. Scott, 

 associate professor of political economy ; John M. 

 Parkinson, associate professor of civil polity ; 

 Albert Shaw, special lecturer on municipal prob- 

 lems ; Amos G. Warner, special lecturer on 

 pauperism ; F. H. Wines, special lecturer on the 

 criminal ; David Kinley, assistant in economics ; 

 F. W. Speers, extension lecturer on history. It 

 is claimed that the founding of this school is a 

 fact of national importance, and that it gives " a 

 State institution in the Northwest, the prece- 

 dence in social and economic science of any other 

 institution in the country." An appropriation 

 of $5.000 was made by the regents of the univer- 

 sity for the purchase of a library for the school 

 of economics and history. 



The corner-stone of Pearsons' Hall, the new 

 science building of Beloit College, was laid on 

 May 1-3. Of the $70,000 which it cost. $60,000 

 was given by Dr. Pearsons. The building has 

 lecture and laboratory rooms, and rooms for a coi- 

 lege museum, and an auditorium. 



Charitable and Penal Institutions. From 

 the biennial report of the Board of Control (the 



first report since the board came into existence), 

 it is learned that at the Mendota Hospital 1.792 

 patients have been treated during the past two 

 years. The Northern Hospital treated a daily 

 average of 526. 



The Delevan School for the Deaf had a daily 

 attendance of 171, and an enrollment of 210. 



The Janesville School for the Blind had a 

 daily attendance of 74 pupils. This school is 

 maintained for the education of children of school 

 age whose sight is so defective that they are un- 

 able to study in the common schools. All the 

 common-school and high-school branches are 

 taught, and instruction on the piano, organ, and 

 violin, and in vocal music is given. Rag-carpet 

 weaving, chair-caning, broom-making, ham- 

 mock, fly-net, and fish-net making, plain and 

 fancy sewing, knitting and crocheting are also 

 taught. Board and tuition are free. 



The report asks for a new school building for 

 the industrial school for boys, which now has a 

 surplus fund of $24,000. The number of boys 

 committed to the school during the past two 

 years is H54. 



The buildings of the State prison are unfavor- 

 ably commented upon, while its management is 

 commended. The Wisconsin system of contract 

 labor is asserted to be the best. 



At the meeting of the Wisconsin department 

 of the Grand Army of the Republic, which be^an 

 March 9, J. H. Woodnorth submitted the report 

 of the Board of Trustees of the Waupaca Home. 

 The cost of maintaining the home for the year 

 was $25,304. The cost of subsistence was $11,- 

 180, making the per capita cost of subsistence 

 $65. The rations per capita averaged in cost 17} 

 cents a day. The cost per capita of clothing 

 for the inmates was $5.63. The total cost of 

 maintenance per capita for the year was $144.84, 

 an average per week of $2.78. The number of 

 inmates is 214, of whom 146 are males and 68 

 females ; the average age of the males is 62 years, 

 and of the inmates who are wives, 48 ; the average 

 age of the widow inmates is 80 years. The num- 

 ber of persons in the home receiving pensions is 

 110, and the average pension per month is $9.49. 

 During the year there was spent on permanent 

 improvements $25,000 of the $50,000 appropri- 

 ated by the legislature in 1891. A new building 

 for the old people was completed in May ; an 

 office building and addition to the main hospital 

 has also been completed. An electric lighting 

 plant, costing $4,000 and furnishing light for all 

 the buildings, has been put in. A chapel for the 

 home was built by the Woman's Relief Corps. 



Labor Statistics. From the report of the 

 Commissioner of Labor Statistics, we learn that 

 "the artisan classes have manifested great inter- 

 est in the work of the bureau," and "that the 

 work of the bureau is coming more in touch 

 with, and is more appreciated by the people and 

 manufacturing interests in the State, from year 

 to year ; the manufacturers manifest a readiness 

 to furnish all required information asked for." 

 In the first part of the report are given statistics 

 as to the building trades and house-ownership : 

 employers' statistics of wages paid in the build- 

 ing trades ; and a comparison of the rate of 

 wages paid in Milwaukee in the building trades 

 with the wages paid in thirty leading cities of the 

 country. This comparison indicates an increase 



