Recently I visited a large penal institution near Boston, Mass., where a food expert had been employed for more than a year. The experiment was overwhelmingly successful. Formerly the food was prepared altogether under the care of inmates, some of whom were more or less acquainted with cooking and serving, generally less familiar. Men were coming and going, hence there was irregular service in the kitchen, and often novices rendered the food unpalatable. The authorities wisely employed a head chef who should direct the work of the bakery and kitchen. The result amply justified the experiment. A balanced ration was served, the food was appetizing, a large variety appeared on the tables from time to time, the hospital was less frequented, and the expense of provision had not been increased. In every way the institution was benefited by the new method. Sing Sing. The most convincing illustration is from Sing Sing. We quote from a report made by Dr. George W. Kirchwey who succeeded Warden Osborne. “When I assumed the responsibilities of the office of Warden and began to make a closer study of conditions at Sing Sing, I was struck by the amount of ill-health and the lack of proper medical care of the inmates. The men seemed to be generally anaemic and undernourished. Many of them were afflicted with disease of one kind or another. Many of them were stunted and deformed, and a large number, it seemed to me, were mentally defective or mentally diseased. "The first thing to which I turned my attention was the problem of supplying an adequate and nourishing diet and of improving the unsanitary and unwholesome conditions under which the food was prepared and served to the inmates generally. In this work I had the services of a committee of inmates and of a food expert, Dr. Emily C. Seaman, of Teachers’ College, Columbia University. The task was not an easy one, because it called for something like a revolution in the prison dietary without increasing the cost, limited to 15 cents a day per man. As the result of the painstaking work of Dr. Seaman and the food committee, the quality of the food was so improved that in a short time the attendance in the mess-hall, which is voluntary, increased by 40 per cent. “They are now serving a diet at Sing Sing which is, upon the whole, satisfactory and comes as near to being a balanced diet as the means at our disposal will permit. What is needed is not so much an increased allowance by the legislature for the purchase of food, as the addition to the prison of an extensive farm which will furnish eggs, vegetables, milk, pork and other supplies at reduced cost. Every prison should have such a farm connected with it. The food reform involved the reconstruction of the old badly ventilated, ill-smelling mess-hall and the building of a new kitchen with modern appliances for the preparation of food, as well as the training of the inmate cooks, waiters, etc., for their duties.