Public Document No. 24 FIFTY-NINTH ANNUAL EEPOET THE TRUSTEES The State Farm BRIDGEWATER, INCLUDING THE REPORTS OF THE SUPERINTENDENT AND OF THE MEDICAL DIRECTOR, Yeab e:ndixg November 30, 1912. BOSTON: WEIGHT & POTTEE FEINTING CO., STATE PEINTEES, 18 Post Office Square. 1913. Approved by The State Board of Publication. CONTENTS. PAGE Trustees' Report, 7 Superintendent's Report, 11 Treasurer's Report, 14 Statistics, 20 Valuation, 26 Hospital Report (Prison and Almshouse), 27 Hospital Statistics (Prison and Almshouse), . .31 Hospital Report (Insane), 39 Hospital Statistics (Insane), 47 STATE FARM, BRIDGEWATER. TRUSTEES. JOHN B. TIVNAN, Chairman, Salem. PAYSON W. LYMAN, Secretary, Fall River. LEONARD HUNTRESS, M.D., Lowell. Mrs. HELEN R. SMITH, Newton. GALEN L. STONE, Brookline. JOHN W. COUGHLIN, M.D., Fall River. Mrs. NELLIE E. TALBOT, . Brookline. RESIDENT OFFICERS. HOLLIS M. BLACKSTONE, . Superintendent. HENRY J. STRANN, . Assistant Superintendent and Treasurer. J. ARTHUR TAYLOR, . Master. WALTER E. TEMPLE, . Deputy Master. ERNEST B. EMERSON, M.D., Resident Physician. BENJAMIN B. KASSON, M.D., Assistant Physician. MINOT W. GALE, M.D., Assistant Physician. ERNEST E. BACON, Farmer. WILLIAM J. TURNBULL, . Engineer. CONSULTING PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS TO THE HOSPITAL DEPARTMENT. CALVIN PRATT, M.D., Bridgewater. SAMUEL J. MIXTER, M.D., Boston. HENRY EHRLICH, M.D., Boston. WILLIAM F. KNOWLES, M.D., Boston. DANIEL FISKE JONES, M.D., Boston. ®l)e Commnntuealtl] of illa^sadjusettB. TRUSTEES' REPORT. To His Excellency the Governor and the Honorable Council. Obedient to statutory requirement, the trustees of the State Infirmary and the State Farm submit their fifty-ninth annual report as to the operation of the State Farm for the year ending Nov. 30, 1912. Along with their own report the trustees submit, as a part of what we offer the executive, the reports made to us by the superintendent of the institution and by the resident physician and medical director, together with statistical tables presented by these officers. These reports furnish a summary and itemized statement of the work of the institution in its sev- eral departments. The financial survey shows at what excep- tionally low cost to the State the work of the State Farm has been accomplished. By the provisions of chapter 451 of the Acts of 1912 the Gen- eral Court appropriated $343,000 for the maintenance of the institution for the fiscal year covered by this report. In addi- tion, under chapter 231, there was a small deficiency appropria- tion of $662.09. The tables herewith submitted give a classified statement of the expenditures authorized and approved by the trustees. During the year herein considered there has been expended for salaries, wages and labor, $102,976.96, and for the current ex- penses, $240,683.49, — a total of $343,660.45. The average number of inmates for the year was 2,615 or 45 less than for the previous year, the slight diminution being con- trary to almost universal precedent. The highest number under care at one time was 2,796, the highest record, and the smallest number was 2,498. The total number of admissions and commitments was 5,161, against 5,620 8 STATE FARM AT BRIDGEWATER. [Dec. during the previous year. The number of persons discharged was 5,248. The average per capita cost has been $2.53 per week, as against $2.40 last year. Under chapter 96 of the R.esolves of 1912 there was appropri- ated $11,500 for improvements and enlargement of the water supply, and $12,000 for additional chapel accommodation. With the former appropriation • additional beds for water filtration have been constructed, which will soon be in use, needed pumping machinery has been installed, and successful exploration has been made for a driven well supply of water for domestic use. The water found is shown by pumping tests to be adequate for our domestic purposes, and analysis shows it to be of the highest grade of purity. The need of increased chapel accommodation is to be met by extending the present chapel toward the street and otherwise enlarging it, rather than by the erection of a new chapel, as was at first contemplated. The erection of the new front wall is already far advanced. The addition -^dll double the seating capacity of the auditorium. The woman's prison has received small extensions to the west and to the east, whereby its fitness and adequacy for its purpose has been enhanced, wliile the symmetry of the structure has been maintained. We were never surer than now of the profitableness of our large farming operations, from every point of view. The tabular state- ment of farm products which we submit, as included in the reports of the superintendent and the medical director, shows an enor- mous total of farm yield, almost all of which is consmned in the institution. The steady extension of the tillable area is a marked feature of the operations from year to year. It has a value not only in the increase of farm productivity, but also as affording needed opportunity of work dm-ing the lull of regular farm opera- tions. The demonstration which the farm gives of the utility and beneficence of field labor for men under sentence is one of our most valuable institution products, as gradually developed and extended under the initiative and oversight of Superintendent Blackstone. At the same time the industries carried on within the prison area have been greatly diversified since the INIaster, J. Arthur 1912.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 24. 9 Taylor, came into the immediate direction of our prison popula- tion. We might instance hand weaving, the recovery of waste and the utilization of fruit products. We refer to the superintendent's report for a statement of the prospective needs of the institution, to be met by special appro- priation, with the statement that the requests for such appro- priation are indorsed by the trustees. Prominent among these needs is the amount required to avail ourselves of the admirable water supply discovered, which when brought to the institution and distributed will free us from the danger of infection arising from the sewage contamination of the Taunton River above our intake, of which contamination we have often complained. For- tunately, through our filtration of the water, our fears have never j'et been realized to any extent, if at all. But the new sup- ply adequate for drinking purposes and for culinary use will render us immune from that danger. The most difiicult part of our complex task is that involved in the care of that part of the institution designated as the Bridge- water State Hospital, which is under the immediate charge of the medical director. Dr. Ernest B. Emerson. His report shows the work done during the year within this department as well as its present condition. Dr. Emerson has given himself loyally and unstintedly to the heavy task of supervising and directing the work with and for those committed to this so-called hospital, the hospital features of which he has sought to emphasize. Under the continued superintendency of Hollis M. Blackstone, supported as he has been in the execution of his plans by his executive staff, the heads of departments, the medical director and staff and the large body of attendants whose generally faith- ful service, each in his own sphere of responsibility, has been co- ordinated toward the end of a humane, effective and economical administration of this greatest of State institutions by the sympa- thetic, sagacious and zealous leadership of its veteran superin- tendent, the State Farm, in all its departments, has for another year, we believe with credit, borne the burden laid upon it, with such results as this report indicates. During the year the personnel of the Board of Trustees has changed by the appointment of Galen L. Stone, John W. Cough- lin and Mrs. Henrietta G. Gushing to the vacancies caused by the 10 STATE FARM AT BRIDGEWATER. [Dec. expiration of the terms of Mrs. Anna F. Prescott, Joseph A. Smart and Emery M. Low, and by the appointment of Mrs. Nellie E. Talbot in place of Mrs. Gushing whose death occurred within a very few months of the appointment which she had loyally accepted and to the duties of which she was giving herself with warm inter- est. Those of us who served with them wish to express appre- ciation of the fidelity with which the retired trustees had met the claims of this trust during a considerable period, which, in the case of Mrs. Prescott, covered more than a quarter of a century. Thus this Board of trust submits to the executive, to which it is responsible, its account of its stewardship for the fifty-ninth year of the institution's life. JOHN B. TIVNAN, PAYSON W. LYIMAN, LEONARD HUNTRESS, HELEN R. SMITH, JOHN W. GOUGHLIN, GALEN L. STONE, NELLIE E. TALBOT, Trustees. 1912.1 PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 24. 11 SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT. To the Trustees of the State Farm. For reasons obvious to your Board I am unable this year to write anything like a full or extended report as superintendent of this institution. My handicap came at the unfortunate period when the report must be made. The topics I desired to write of in the thirtieth year of my work in this the State's largest institu- tion were naturally of great interest to myself, and I regret more than you can the disability compelling the omission. The statistics for the first time in many years show a decisive drop in commitments. The total commitments for the year have been 5,161, as against 5,620 last year, — a decrease of 459, and nearly all of them, or 439, occurred in the workhouse depart- ment, — 405 males and 34 females, — a net decrease of 8 per cent.