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To such an asylum might be sent both the classes above referred to, without detriment to themselves and to the great relief of their present care-takers. The care of the more helpless and dependent of these classes would be in part relieved by the services of those rendered more capable by their previous training in our own institution.

The trustees have repeatedly, in former reports, urged this important matter upon the consideration of the legislature. They now repeat the same, hoping that some action will be taken in accordance with their suggestion.

At the present time some fifteen of the smaller counties of the state have no pupils in the asylum. As the trustees desire that the benefits of the institution may be distributed as equitably as possible to all portions of the state, they would solicit applications for the admission of pupils from any parties who may know of the existence of children of deficient intellect in their respective neighborhood. A list of the counties unrepresented will be found in the appendix, together with the mode of obtaining admission to its benefits.

The appropriation necessary for the support of the institution for the next fiscal year will be at least. $36,000, as provision will have to be made for at least one hundred and eighty state pupils.

The trustees feel warranted in the expression of the opinion that the results of the working of the institution in the line of its original purpose have been successful. It has furnished a practical education to a large majority of those submitted to its care, and it has afforded immense relief to many afflicted families in all portions of the state.

They would also add that they have found at their periodical and occasional visits to the asylum, all the departments in proper order, and other evidences that the officers and teachers and the various subordinate assistants have been faithful to their charge.

In concluding this report the trustees would do injustice to their own personal feelings, as members of this board, if they failed to allude to the loss they have sustained in the death of the Rev. Henry N. Pohlman, so long associated with them, and who died only a week following their last annual meeting in Albany.

At the October meeting of the board appropriate resolutions were introduced and unanimously adopted. The same will be found at length in an appendix to the present report.

JAMES H. TITUS,
FRANKLIN TOWNSEND,
LYMAN CLARY,
E. W. LEAVENWORTH,
ALLEN MONROE,
GEO. F. COMSTOCK,
LAKE I. TEFFT.

EX-OFFICIO:
SAMUEL J. TILDEN,
DIEDRICH WILLERS, JR., Secretary of State.
NEIL GILMOUR, Sup't. of Public Instruction.
NELSON K. HOPKINS, Comptroller.

SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.

To the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots:

GENTLEMEN -- I herewith submit a report of the affairs of the institution, over which I have the immediate charge for the year ending September 30, 1874.

The whole number of pupils connected with the asylum during that period was 199. The average attendance for the year was 183. Of the whole number on the list, 166 were supported entirely from the state appropriation; the remainder, 39, were paying pupils, either in full or in part of the actual cost of their maintenance and instruction.

The actual cost for board and instruction of each of the above average number of pupils in attendance, including all expenses, was $203, or about $4 a week.

Six deaths occurred during the year. Two of these were from consumption, one from epilepsy, one from congestion of the lungs, one from erysipelas, and the sixth from an accident. This accident, however, befell the pupil at the city and not on the premises of the institution.

The present number on our list of pupils is over 200; of whom 198 are actually present. Besides these several pupils have been accepted who have not yet entered. It is designed to admit the present school year 180 state pupils and 25 or 30 pay-pupils, or nearly the full capacity of the asylum.

During the past year, as in former years, many applications have been received for the admission of parties who were too old to be benefited by our methods of training and instruction. This prompts me to renew the suggestion, already repeated in prior reports to your board, that a proper custodial institution for idiots should be added to the number of existing state institutions. Two or three plans might be suggested for this purpose. It might be made a branch or department of the asylum for chronic insane at Willard, Seneca county, without materially interfering with the general plan and scope of that institution; it might he made a distinct department of the present asylum for idiots, though for such custodial purposes a location in the country, where more land for farming purposes was available, would on some accounts be better; or it might he established as a distinct institution in some central and favorable locality. In any event, the buildings could be like those last erected at Willard, plain, substantial, but of a very moderate cost.