New York

At the head of the department of mental hygiene is the com missioner of mental hygiene appointed by the governor with the consent of the senate. He holds office during the term of the ap pointing governor, and receives an annual salary of $12,000. In 1937 the department of mental hygiene had supervision over the following institutions: State schools for mental defectives at Newark, Rome, Syracuse, Thiells, Wassaic ; the Craig Colony (epileptics) at Sonyea ; hospitals for insane at Binghamton, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Central Islip, Helmuth, Wingdale, Poughkeep sie, Kings Park, New York, Middletown, Rochester, Ogdensburg, Utica, Creedmoor, Marcy, Brentwood, Orangeburg and Willard; psychopathic hospitals at New York and Syracuse.

The State department of charities consists of a State board of social welfare of 15 members, one member from each of the nine judicial districts and six additional members for the State at large, all appointed by the governor with the consent of the senate for a term of five years. The board appoints a chief executive officer with the title of commissioner of social welfare. In 1937 the State charitable institutions were as follows: State training school for girls, Hudson ; State agricultural and industrial school, In dustry; Thomas Indian school, Iroquois; State Woman's Relief Corps Home, Oxford; and the Training School for Boys at War wick. The Hospital for Treatment of Incipient Pulmonary Tuber culosis at Raybrook; the State Reconstruction Home at West Haverstraw ; recently erected tuberculosis hospitals at Oneonta and Mount Morris ; the State Institute for the Study of Malignant Dis eases at Buffalo, and the recently completed Hermann M. Biggs Memorial Hospital at Ithaca are under the control of the depart ment of health. Facilities for educating the blind are provided by the State school for the blind at Batavia and by private institu tions where pupils are maintained on a per caput basis. The deaf and dumb are educated in private institutions. Such pupils as are appointed by the commissioner of education, are maintained by the State. The condition of several of these State institutions was so unsatisfactory that in 1930 the State legislature voted an appropriation of $18,300,000 to assist the institutions in improv ing their facilities.

Agriculture and Stock-raising.

Although New York has lost in the competition with the Western States in the production of most of the grains, especially wheat, barley and Indian corn, and in the production of wool, mutton and pork, it has steadily progressed in the dairy business and continues to rank first as a hay producing State. It has made great advances, too, in the pro duction of flowers, ornamental plants, nursery products, fruits, vegetables, poultry and eggs. The farm acreage in 1935 was 18, 686,00o or 61.6% of the State's total land area. Of this total, 8,239,65oac. were classified as crop land, 7,519,842ac. as pasture land, and 2,061,284 as woodland. The number of farms steadily de

creased from 226,720 in 1900 to 177,025 in 1935. The average acreage per farm, in the latter year, was 106, a slight increase over the 99.9ac. in 1900. More than 86.8% of the farms were operated by owners or part owners. The total value of all farm property de creased between 1920-35 from $1,908,483,201 to Of the total acreage of all farm crops in 1935, 4,060,000 were of hay and 2,051,000 (24.9%) were of cereals. In the amount of the hay crop (5,5o6,000 tons) and in value 000), New York ranked first among the States of the Union. In 1935, 6,457,00013u. of wheat; of Indian corn; 590,000bu. of oats; 4,158,000bu. of barley; 405,000bu. of rye; 27,83o,000bu. of potatoes; 39o,000lb. of tobacco; 16,875,000bu. of apples; 793,000bu. of peaches; 663,000bu. of pears; and 66,500 tons of grapes were produced. Figures for 1934 reveal that the State produced 6,228,593 quarts of strawberries and garden vegetables worth In 1935, New York ranked first among the States in the production of onions and cabbages, second in the production of grapes, commercial apples, beets and cauli flower; fourth in the production of potatoes; and fifth in the pro duction of pears. New York is a leading state for truck gardening. The State is a large producer of onions, green peas, green (snap) beans, cauliflower, celery, cabbages, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, tur nips, sweet corn, cucumbers, rhubarb and parsnips. The culture of small fruit and vegetables is widely distributed throughout the western half of the State and in the valley of the Hudson, and the greater part of Long Island under cultivation is devoted to market gardening, floriculture and nurseries. The total value of the fruit crop in 1935 was second only to that of California. The greater orchards are in the tier of counties bordering the south shore of Lake Ontario and in Dutchess and Ulster counties in the Hudson valley. Chautauqua county is the chief producer of grapes, but this fruit is grown extensively in the region west of Seneca lake in the vicinity of Lake Keuka, and in parts of the lower valley of the Hudson. The dairy business and the production of hay are especially prominent in the upper valley of the Hudson, in the rugged regions west of the Adirondack mountains and in the rug ged portions of the counties in the southern half of the State. According to the 1935 census of agriculture, 782,519,654ga1. of milk were produced in 1934, a figure surpassed only by Wisconsin. In 1934 there were 329,091 sheep shorn, and the wool production was 2,407,3151b. The eggs produced (97,167,468 dozen) and the number of chickens raised (17,222,02o) were considerably higher than the production of ten years before (87,167,262 and 14,940, 905). The value of all the live stock in the State in 1935 was $136,101,000, placing the State seventh in the Union.