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Of course the needs of the class are constantly forced upon the notice of those connected with this institution. Nor can their eyes be shut to the fact that, relatively to the State provision in the case of the other dependent classes, they are left far behind. No deaf- mute or blind child in the State is now denied admission to the asylums provided by the State to meet their respective wants. Two other asylums for idiots, founded since the New York asylum went into operation, have already outgrown it.

Acting upon this knowledge, an appeal was made to the Legislature by your board, four years ago, in their annual report, to increase the capacity of the asylum, and thus enable it to meet the pressing demands of the community. The appeal was supported by statistics that it is not necessary to repeat now.

It came before the Legislature at a time when the expenses of the war were making a heavy drain upon the State finances, and the board decided not to press the claim before the committee of ways and means. It was, therefore, left for a more favorable opportunity.

Two years since their attention was diverted in another direction. A favorable opportunity seemed then to be presented for securing an unoccupied building that was on the farm connected with the new asylum for chronic insane, at Ovid. The building was well adapted to the purpose, with a small outlay in fitting it up. It would accommodate some two hundred custodial cases. They could be cared for by the organization that already existed there.

The recommendation was made by your board in their last two reports. A conditional clause was inserted in the supply bill of last year to defray the expense of the work. It is now known, however, that the trustees of the Ovid asylum have fitted up the building referred to for the reception of the harmless insane.

No alternative now remains but to return to the former plan and increase the capacity of this institution. There are some obvious advantages in this. A moderate increase in the number of its inmates will manifestly diminish the annual cost of their individual support. It will enable a wider range of classification. By a greater extention of the buildings, will be afforded opportunity for a more complete separation of the sexes. It will open the way to a more complete system of employment for the older pupils, and make a place for a longer-continued occupation of a portion of them.

The pupils received into an asylum, like this, of a strictly educational character, may be divided into three classes. First, those who prove, after a fair trial, to be unteachable. The by-laws provide for the dismissal of these. For such custodial institutions are needed, except where the ample pecuniary means of the parents permit a suitable disposition of them elsewhere.

Next those who after a term of years at training and management may be safely remanded to whence they came. This is to be desired in all cases where favorable family circumstances, and intelligent guidance allow them to continue on in the way of the begun improvement. Thus, when females who have with us acquired a knowledge of the ordinary domestic occupation, and habits of industry, this capacity, with good management in the family at home, may be made to contribute to their self-support and their happiness for the remainder of their lives.

The same is true in the case of boys who have learned to labor in any simple occupation, and have acquired similar habits of industry.

There are those of our pupils, however, who have made equal progress in the school-room, and in the various industrial employments adopted here, and who have developed equal intelligence and capacity, but who have no proper home to which they may return. The families from which they came may have been broken up, or their home conditions are extremely unfavorable for their future care and management. They have outgrown, in point of years, the orphan asylum from which they came. If from the poor-houses of the State, from which some of the pupils have been received, the management in these is not such as to warrant the belief that, when returned thither they may not, in a measure, relapse into former habits of stupidity and idleness.

One feature in the organization of the asylum at Earlswood, England, was designed to meet these conditions.

Pupils are admitted there by the ballots of the patrons. List of candidates for admission are prepared for the information of the patrons, setting forth the circumstances of each case. They are divided into two classes, short term and long term cases. Each year a certain number of each class are balloted for. This second ballot secures a longer residence for those whose circumstances seem to make such longer continuance in the institution desirable.

It is decided to enlarge this institution. The additional room, the new accommodations that might be provided in the way of work-shops, would enable us to engraft this feature with some modifications upon our present plan. Thus, in what may be called the homeless class, when any peculiar aptitude or capacity is manifested for such employments as would be most productive in diminishing the annual cost of the maintenance of the asylum, whether in out-door occupations, household matters or, perhaps, in assisting in the care of the more helpless ones; let such be retained for a longer period than is now the rule.