The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-10-30
WINTER QUARTERS
Crop at RefOrmatOry Stored
for Future Use.
Apples, Potatoes and Meat i'm
Cold Storage.

| Hutchinson, Oct 3o.-The crops
I are gathered out at the reformatory.
and even the cattle paStured out on
| the sandhill property have been tax
en- to winter quarters nearer the
buildings. They are preparing for
| "CF Mistah Wintah.'
And the crops are not to be sneezed
at in these days of the high cost OF
| everything to eat. There are apples,
1000 bushels of them, packed away
| in the storage house, and there are
1900 bushels of potatoes. OF sweet
potatoes, there are 500 bushels.
These, with 140 hogs and 256 cattle,
and with a fine store of pork already
hanging in the cold storage house,
make a few bites between hunger and
the inmates at the big institution. 1t
takes several bites too, for the ord1-
nary meal. For instance, when spuds
are on the bill Of fare-and when is
there ever a bill of fare that does not
include spuds ?-the cooks must get
ready siX-count 'em-SIX bushels.
, service getting ready for a church
supper, that appalling number of po-
tatoes will appeal to you.
And apple sauce, made by the sew
eral gallons at a time, is another part
of the meal that takes peeling by the
hour, almost. 1t is a task to get a
meal ready in Capt. A. D. Smiths
great, clean kitchen, with it's up-to-
! the-minute appliances; it is a revela-
ton for the average housekeeper to
see the dishes cleared from the tables
and washed and dried in fifteen min
utes after the 222 inmates file from
the dining room. 1t is a veritable
ragtime performance, and the way
that the wire baskets are filled with
the plates and cups, plunged into the
big tank of soapsuds, then into sue
cessive rinsing tans, with the water
boiling furiously in them, would do
the sanitary housewives soul good.
So would it do her soul good to see
the cooler rooms and the dairy room,
with its cream separator and it's vari
Gus tins and pans and appliances
shining clean. The temperature of
the bakery might interfere with a
long stay there, but when 400 loaves
are turned out a day, of bread made
from flour that tests rich in nourish-
ing gluten, the furnaces must be kept
hot for some time.
There is not an officer Of the re-
formatory who is in sympathy with
the notion Of charging the institution
into farm with farm interests only.
The grounds would have to be so ex-
tensive, and purchased at so great
cost, the expense of hiring experts for
teachers in scientific farming would
pile up so high (and there would have
to be a sacrifice, too, of what the in
SlllullOH dlIcduy OWHS III Tile way VI
it's plants) that the expense seems to
them prohibitive. AS it is, the insti-
tuition is largely self-supporting.
The farming of the grounds as at
present carried on does not take the
work of all the inmates, since many
of them prefer the trades depart
ments. Exclusive farming would
mean a big change in many details
of the conduct of the reformatory,
and would mean placing at farming
tasks boys who would not care for the
work, the men in charge of these boys
declare. The plan advanced for
making a huge farm training school
of the place and adding greatly to
the grounds already owned is meeting
with small favor.