sugar beets, 15 of vegetables, 15 of beans, 15 of turnips, 20 of small fruit and orchard, and 350 tons of hay. There are 175 head of cattle, of all ages, including 50 milch cows, which furnish milk and butter for the institution. There are raised, mostly on tame pasture, 300 hogs, which supply the institution with abundant, healthy, fresh pork, besides bacon, hams and lard. Only one inmate has died in the last three years, and only one a year has been in the hospital.

Eighty per cent of the inmates are growing boys, sixteen to twenty-four years old, hearty eaters and hard on clothes, and, as they come without trades and are mostly undisciplined to labor or otherwise, and as soon as fitted go out for themselves again, their cost to the State is much more in proportion than their earning capacity. The object is reformation, and if that is accomplished and due economy is exercised, the State is well served.

The effect, in the reformation of inmates, of honest labor, good school instruction, ethical lectures and religious teaching, all under firm but kindly discipline, intended to cultivate self control, fully justifies the hopes of the friends of prison reform.

It is not a favorable commentary on the enlightenment of organized communities that, immediately upon the organization of the government, the citizens thereof must protect themselves against the violation of the law. Minnesota offers no exception to the rule, and therefore the state prison at Stillwater was the second institution located in the State. Stillwater was selected in consequence of an agreement by which the capitol was to remain at St. Paul and the state university to go to St. Anthony Falls. This agreement was entered into immediately after the organization of the Territory, and in 1851 the state prison was organized and building operations commenced. Although crude and wholly of wood then, surrounded by a light wooden fence, there now stands on the site then selected massive stone buildings, surrounded on four sides by high stone walls of an average thickness of two and one-half feet and an average height of thirty feet, inclosing an area of nine and one-half acres.

The administration building faces the east, and entrance to same is from

the main street of the city. On the first floor is found the warden's offices, reception rooms, quarters for the board of managers, dining rooms and officers' kitchen. The second floor contains female prison, matron's quarters, spare parlor, dining rooms for first and second grade prisoners. The third floor contains officers' sleeping quarters and chapel. The cell house stands immediately in the rear, to the west of the administration building, and is built entirely of stone, with steel roofs, having steel rafters; all cell floors are of sheet steel, and all gallery landings and all gallery walks of the same material. The main portion runs east and west. Two cross sections were built in 1884, running north and south. The cell house now contains 562 cells. In 1889 there was built a commodious hospital building, at the extreme west center of the prison yard. The first floor of this building is now used for the deputy warden's office and punishment cells, the second floor for hospital purposes and office of the prison physician.

The shops of the institution are seven in number, all built of stone and brick, three stories high, with steel roofs. The labor of the prisoners is now devoted to three industries, the manufacture of binding twine and high school scientific apparatus, on state account, and the manufacture of boots and shoes on the piece-price plan. The total amount of twine manufactured during the fiscal year 1898 was 5,000,000 pounds, all of which was sold within the borders of the State, about 1,000,000 pounds being shipped from the institution direct to the farmers of the State.

The discipline and management of the prison is equal to the best in the country; every feature of advanced penal management is in full operation, the state laws allowing diminution of sentence term for good conduct. An evening school is conducted for the benefit of the inmates eight months in the year, a Chautauqua circle is well attended by the inmates, and a well organized choir of inmates furnishes music for Sunday services and holiday entertainments. The Prison Mirror, a weekly newspaper, is published and edited by the inmates, who have full control. The prison has a well selected library, containing nearly 5,000 volumes, which are freely circulated among the prisoners. The parole and grading systems, which have been in operation for the past seven years, continue to give most excellent satisfaction, and have fully evidenced that they are both movements in the right direction. Since the introduction of the parole system there have been 297 prisoners released under the rules and regulations governing the system. Of this number, thirty-one have violated the privileges and have been returned to the prison. The paroled prisoner is looked after by a state agent, whose duty it is to assist the discharged prisoner in securing employment and to have a watchful care that the conditions of parole are not violated.

The population of the prison at the close of the last fiscal year was 501, of whom eight were women. The number on parole was forty-seven.

The legislature for 1889 passed a reorganization act providing for the appointment of a board of managers, one from each congressional district, and enlarging the reward for good conduct. After entering the prison, five days are deducted during the first year, seven days for each month during the second year, nine days for each month during the third year, and for each month thereafter ten days. The legislature of 1897 passed a law pro