This balance would go far toward meeting the expense of purchasing and stocking the farm and providing the temporary buildings which may be constructed by the prisoners themselves. The saving to these counties in two or three years would suffice to purchase and equip the plant, and with efficient management, the Penal Farm ought soon to be self-supporting--a result not only satisfactory to taxpayers but, what is far more important, in the highest degree beneficial to the delinquent in whose restoration the community is vitally interested. These facts have been gleaned from a study of nine counties, but it must be remembered that the bill now before the General Assembly provides for the establishment of such an Institution by almost double the number of counties, hence it is apparent that within two or three years the entire expense of the farm and its equipment will be returned to the managers and with self-support practically assured, the future expense of caring for such delinquents will be reduced to a minimum or will entirely vanish. A. V. H. STATE BOARD OF PUBLIC CHARITIES AND PRISON LABOR. We gladly present the following facts which have been gleaned from interviews with Edward Wilson, Esq., one of the agents of this Board. So far as prison labor is involved, the Board of Public Charities has been deeply interested in developing the possibilities of an Act which on their initiative was passed and approved in 1917. This allows the employment of prisoners on lands belonging to any county. In 1915 Judge Isaac Johnson, in Delaware County began a system of employing prisoners which the Board desires to extend. In the year 1918, the receipts from the crops produced by the labor of prisoners amounted to $14,000, in addition to a large amount of vegetable products consumed at the prison. The net profit is near $7000. Report comes that Berks County will be able to supply the prison with vegetables for the winter. Northampton County employed fifteen to twenty prisoners on a small farm recently purchased. Dauphin County had a few prisoners at work on the almshouse farm. In Montgomery County from fifteen to twenty prisoners have been employed on the Poor farm. In Columbia County seven Italians are engaged in operating a war garden which it is said has been very profitable. In one or two counties with large population, there is no land available for such purpose. Mr. Wilson states that little or nothing has been accomplished in this direction in those counties whose jail population is small. At one time in the year 1918, there were 13 counties without a prisoner. In some counties prisoners have worked on the roads. A few counties have been willing for selected prisoners to be paroled to farmers.