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The poorhouses of New England are generally called almshouses, and have been since their first establishment, more than two centuries ago; using the old English name which in England is now given to private charitable establishments, while what in New England is called an almshouse is in the mother country termed a workhouse. Like the English "workhouse," our almshouses" were originally parish establishments, the New England town and parish having formerly been the same jurisdiction, although there may now be fifty parishes in a single large town like Boston. It is very seldom, however, that a New England town, or even a city, contains more than one almshouse. The city of Boston, at present, has four; but this is quite exceptional. In New Hampshire, the town almshouses, which were once numerous, have lately been superseded to a great extent by county almshouses, such as are common outside of New England. No other New England State, I believe, has yet adopted the county system; nor does it prevail exclusively in New Hampshire. In Massachusetts there is a single State almshouse, with nearly a thousand inmates, and about 225 city and town almshouses, of all sizes, and containing from a single inmate to 500, as in one or two cities. A fair example of the better class of these town almshouses is one in a rural town, of which the following description has recently been given me by Dr. Nathan Allen, one of the Almshouse Visitors for the Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity, who inspected it about two months ago: --

"The almshouse at B. has a large farm, estimated at over 400 acres. The land is good and valuable, a part of it occupied for a long time as a poor farm. The house was burnt some ten years ago, after which the present house was built. It is large and looks like a hotel, with fifty rooms, and might accommodate three times as many inmates as it has to-day, August 10, -- 14 paupers (the average number being seldom over 20), all American, and remarkable for great age and good health. The rooms are well ventilated and lighted, neat and cleanly, the men's and women's departments entirely separated; while each inmate is furnished with a room. Several of the women take good care of their rooms. I went through the house and into nearly all the rooms. The whole establishment is superior to many private houses. The superintendent, E.G., has had charge for five years. He is paid $450. Mrs. G. is a superior woman and admirably adapted to the place. She knows everything about the house and also about every inmate. The food is superior in quality and amount. The inmates are: T.B., 97; L.W., 90.; C.C., 83; L.B., 68; G.B., 63; F.T., 56; S.P., 56; M.R., 56; S.J., 44; L.H., 34; E.M., 20; M.B., 19; H.M., 3; G.E.M., one year. T.B. is the oldest man in the town, and retains his senses surprisingly. It is so with L.W. and C.C. Not an insane person is found among them."

The farm connected with this almshouse is exceptionally large, and perhaps there is no one of the 230 almshouses in the State which has so many acres of land connected with it. It is customary, however, to have a farm of a hundred acres attached to each town almshouse, the aggregate acreage of land thus used in Massachusetts being about 22,000; although in many cases there is but an acre or two. It seldom happens that these large farms can be cultivated by the labor of the pauper inmates, who are generally aged or infirm men, unless they are insane or epileptic. Only a small part of them is cultivated at all, the greater portion being woodland or pasturage; but the produce of the farm, in most cases, supplies the inmates with vegetables, milk, etc., and in some is sufficient to pay all the expenses of the almshouse. Frequently, the almshouse keeper also has charge of the town roads, or does some labor in connection with them, or attends to some other department of the town service, such as the care of cemeteries or the distribution of supplies for out-door relief. In a few towns, the almshouse is used as the place for keeping the town records and transacting a large part of the town business, the "selectmen," or chief officers of the town, being in such cases "overseers of the poor." This latter title is the name given to the chief officers who direct the relief of the poor in all parts of New England, corresponding to the term "guardians" in England and "supervisors" in some of the United States. Occasionally, though not often, one of these overseers of the poor is actually the keeper of the almshouse; but this officer is generally appointed from a class of persons who devote themselves to the occupation of almshouse keeping, and who therefore remove from town to town as their occupation ceases in one place and begins in another. Some of these keepers remain in one position for twenty years; but this is rare, the only instance which occurs to me being the keeper of the almshouse in Plymouth, the oldest town in Massachusetts. The average length of service in the towns visited this year is about four years, and the average salary of the keeper is $387. This is a sum too small to secure the best service, and in less than half the Massachusetts almshouses is the management up to the standard which would be maintained in a State establishment for the same class. On the other hand, there are few instances of gross neglect or abuse on the part of the almshouse keepers; while there are many more instances of such careful management as is indicated in the almshouse above described. From my slight acquaintance with the almshouses of the other New England States, I have no reason to doubt that the standard of management is highest in Massachusetts; although there are many well-kept almshouses in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The whole number of these establishments now in use in the six New England States is believed to be about 600, for it is impossible to state this exactly. It therefore seems that Massachusetts, with a population nearly half that of all New England, has but a little more than a third part of the almshouses: whence it follows that the average number of inmates must be considerably greater in a Massachusetts almshouse than in the almshouses of other States.