Mr. Edward Taenzer, Inspector of Berks County, informed the meeting that this season they had employed prisoners on their County Farm, and that the experiment had been a decided success from every point of view. Two years ago an effort had been made to employ the prisoners on this land, and this proposition had been heartily approved by the Inspectors, the County Commissioners, the Directors of the Poor and the local press. The Solicitors of the Boards, however, held that such action was illegal, admitting that work on roads was the only employment allowed to prisoners except behind the bars. Since the beginning of the great war Mr. Taenzer and others renewed their efforts to find employment for the prisoners on farms, meeting with formidable opposition, but since the legal bar was removed by recent legislation the prisoners have been hard at work, giving satisfaction to all concerned. The selected men are taken by conveyance to the Farm and work for eight hours daily. They have produced from four to five hundred bushels of potatoes and a like proportion of other vegetables. Just now they are working on the drainage project. The Poor Directors provide the midday meal, and it is expected that hereafter they may provide for the necessary supervision. The men receive no pay for their labor, but esteem it a great privilege thus to be employed. Secretary Votaw stated that the consensus of opinion was evidently favorable to the employment of county prisoners on farms as far as possible. He invited Agent McGarry, of the State Board of Charities, to comment on the attitude of this Board on this subject. Mr. McGarry said that the Board had for many years advocated such employment and that the emergency created by the war had made such legislation possible. The Acting Chairman then called the attention of the conference to Act. No. 399, which received the approval of the Governor on the 20th of July, 1917. The law had practically been unheralded, but its execution would revolutionize conditions in all the counties of the State. The Act provides for the division of the State into nine Districts, containing from five to ten counties, in each of which Districts there shall be established an institution to which all convicts, sentenced to a term of ten days or more, may be sent. It seemed to be formulated with a view to the general betterment of the prisoners confined in the county jails. The fact that there was no clause making it compulsory to send prisoners to such institution was regarded as a weak feature. General discussion followed. There were many present who had not seen the law, or even heard thereof. There was a general opinion that this law should be carefully considered before the conference should come to a settled conclusion.