CORRECTIONAL AGRICULTURE 295 



meanants, which are technically "villages," this tract is a real 

 colony. It draws its population direct from the Eastern Hos- 

 pital, instead of from the whole state, and it is administered 

 through that institution. 



On the rich acres of Wayne Farms, as the colony has been 

 christened, thirty patients of varying degrees of insanity are 

 now living the simple life. Eleven occupy a remodeled farm 

 dwelling called Cedar House; another group a remodeled school 

 building called Maple House. An old tavern, built about 1840 

 for the convenience of immigrants to the West, is being made 

 over and will house twenty-five more patients. 



Patients now at Wayne Farms do teaming, plowing, grass- 

 cutting and similar occupations under little or no supervision. 

 Some are put in charge of the farm machinery in the fields. On 

 the day of my visit five patients were digging a cellar at Cedar 

 House under an employed foreman. Others were hoeing beans. 

 One sturdy workman stopped chopping wood long enough to 

 urge us to collect for him some unpaid bills, fictions of his dis- 

 eased mind. 



In Wisconsin districts containing one or more counties have 

 established small agricultural communities for their insane, only 

 the most acute cases being consigned to hospitals. 



This plan was worked out thirty-three years ago, and for the 

 past eighteen years Wisconsin has kept abreast of the demands 

 of her insane population for institutional care. The counties 

 build the farm communities (asylums) and each county sending 

 patients to one pays one-half the maintenance of its own charges, 

 the state paying the other half. This is the best system of state 

 care for the insane yet devised in this country. 



FARMING AS A CURE FOR THE INSANE 1 



W. E. TAYLOR 



I AM fully convinced that a thoroughly equipped farm prop- 

 erly conducted will contribute more to the cure of the insane 



i Adapted from National Conference of Charities and Corrections, 

 17:943-4, F. 23, 07. 



