The Board of Directors have taken account of the very strong movement now prevailing in this country in behalf of the adult blind and have decided to maintain the school throughout the months of the summer vacation for the benefit of this class provided the appropriation for current expense is made adequate for this purpose. The reasons for this, and the specific plans proposed, are set forth at length at a paper, printed with this report which was read by the superintendent, at the meeting of the Association of Instructors of America, held in August at Portland, Ore. To meet the expenses for this purpose an appropriation of $13,000 made immediately available will cover the deficiency arising from cancellation and make the necessary provision for the continuation of the school through the fiscal year. The sum of $26,000 for each of the years of the coming biennial period is estimated to be necessary for maintaining the efficiency of the school.

The biennial meeting of the American Association of Instructors of the Blind was held in Portland, Oregon Aug. 21, 22, and 23, which I had the privilege of attending. The attendance was small but several valuable papers were presented, and very interesting visits were made to the School for the Blind at Salem, Oregon and the School for the Deaf and Blind at Vancouver, Wash.

During the biennial period books have been received from the American Printing House for the blind of Louisville, Kentucky of the value of $414.99, the proportion due this state from the annual subsidy of $10,000 granted by the United States government to the schools for the blind of this country. The "Sunday School Weekly" has been donated to the school as in former years to the number of ten copies. The "Christian Record" a magazine in point print has also been donated. Thirty-five volumes of religious books have been placed in our library for circulation throughout the state by the Catholic Free Publication Society for the Blind and a copy of the "Catholic Transcript for the Blind" has been received monthly from the same society. For these generous and timely donations the thanks of the school are extended.

It is a pleasure to be able to report that no deaths and no serious illness have occurred during the past two years.

The faithful service and conscientious devotion of the officers and teachers of the school in the discharge of the duties entrusted to them are worthy of more than the passing mention which can here be made in recognition of them.

The cordial cooperation of the State Board of Control in matters falling under their supervision, and their hearty sympathy with the entire work of the school in all its phases are most fully appreciated. In closing this report I desire to make record of the unfailing support received from your honorable body at all times.

Respectfully submitted,

JAMES J. DOW,

Superintendent.

The cash receipts for the period have been derived from the following

The products of the farm and garden consumed by the school were as follows:

Below is given a statement of the receipts and expenditures of pupils'

The commission to investigate the condition of the adult blind in the state of New York introduces its valuable report on that subject with the statement that "the question 'What can the state do to ameliorate the condition of the adult blind,' is one which has for some years been forcing itself with ever increasing urgency upon all who have anything to do with those who have lost their sight."

The most painful experience of those charged with the education and training of blind youth have been in connection with the appeals of the adult blind for some opportunity to adjust themselves to the new conditions in which they find themselves. Thrust into the dark and utterly unfamiliar with the means and devices with which their affliction may be ameliorated, and with exaggerated ideas of the possibilities of speedy and easy training for self-support, they feel most bitterly the deprivation of what seems to them the only means of help.

So strongly do these conditions appeal to the humane impulses of the heart that doubtless every superintendent of a school for the blind has yielded his better judgment to them at times and granted the opportunity sought. The consensus of experience thus gained confirms the terse statement of the commission's report that such admissions "imperil the usefulness of these institutions as moral and intellectual educators of the youthful blind." Enough has been done to show that the adult blind may be more or less materially aided in overcoming the enormous difficulties which beset the one who loses sight after coming to years of maturity. But it has been made even more clear that the mingling of such blind persons with blind children of school age is almost invariably attended with seriously harmful results to the latter.

The reception of the adult blind, or more specifically of blind menfor the conditions are somewhat different with blind women-has therefore come almost universally to be denied by those in control of the educational institutions for blind youth.

This shutting of the door of hope to the adult blind has been so painful to those who have been compelled to do it, and so depressing and even appalling in its effects upon those shut out, that the heart of humanity has been stirred to discover some means of furnishing an equivalent to the opportunities denied, or perchance some other and different method of aid which should be even better suited to the peculiar needs and conditions of those bereft of sight in adult years.

The results of such efforts have been most thoroughly and conscientiously set forth in the Commission's Report to which I have already referred. I shall not attempt to give even in the baldest summary the findings of this commission. It is sufficient to say that no system or method has been discovered which in any way solves the problém. And further it is made reasonably clear that the conditions admit of only partial and palliative remedies even at the best.

All of the methods and arrangements referred to have been of some benefit to a limited number, but none of them impress the impartial student as being more than experiments, and in most cases experiments of doubtful final utility.

In view of the admittedly great need, and of the as yet experimental nature, of all forms of remedy, a new experiment does not need to defend itself. Such an experiment the state of Minnesota is now making preparations for and proposes to inaugurate next summer. Its general nature is suggested by the title of my paper, and it is in brief a summer school for blind men during the vacation period of the regular school for blind youth.

It is proposed to continue the school for a period of ten weeks, receiving only such blind men as have had no opportunity of learning how to live their new life, and giving the preference, in view of the limited number to be received, to those most recently afflicted. All of the industrial facilities of the school will be available for the pupils, who will be expected to put in as full hours as their varying physical conditions will warrant. There will also be instruction in tangible reading and writing, in the methods of retention of the power to write previously possessed and in the use of the typewriter.

Especial attention will also be given to instruction in the best ways of acquiring independence of action, and of performing the ordinary personal and social functions of life.