Excerpt from Biennial Report of the Director of State Institutions of the State of Vermont: For the Term Ending June 30, 1918 The Legislature of 1917 created the office of Director of State Institutions, with all the powers, duties and liabilities of the Board of Penal Institutions, Board of Trustees of the State Hospital and the Board of Trustees of the School for Feeble Minded. The superintendents in charge of these various institutions have very comprehensively covered the work that has been done during the present biennial term, and it would be unwise for me to change in any way the excellent descriptive reports they have made, which are printed herewith. It would also seem to be a waste of time to go into detail further than they have regarding the work which has been accomplished during the present term. When this office became effective it was not the purpose of the Director to make any spectacular changes, rather to intensify in every reasonable way those interests that would make for economy and efficiency. The farming has been enlarged to that extent so that all commodities that could be produced from the soil might do their share in supporting the institutions. The Prison farm has been increased now to comprise 400 acres of land. In acquiring this property we had two principles in mind: first, to raise our own vegetables, produce our own milk and various other commodities used in the institution; second, or more important, to give work in the open air to many of the prisoners who were invalids, and also to use their labor in a way that it might compensate to the State better than their labor in the shop. We feel that this has been a successful venture; our crops have been abundant, our milk supply beyond our consumption and in various ways it has been a great asset in reducing the expense account. During the biennial term the demand for increase of crops has been unusual. We have endeavored to comply with all these requests, and the present year in the five institutions 350 acres in cereals, potatoes and garden truck may be seen. We hope for an abundant crop of wheat the present year, and have every promise that it may be fulfilled. Of the 350 acres under cultivation, 35 acres are in garden truck. The population, as it relates to the Hospital and the Industrial School, has been very large. The Prison and House of Correction have been smaller than the preceding term, due undoubtedly to the war conditions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Eugenics is a pseudo- scientific field of selective human breeding that rose to prominence in the early 1900s and was the foundation of Nazi Germany. Vermont was one of many American states to adopt eugenics as the basis for public policies such as family separation, institutionalization, and sterilization that targeted the most vulnerable Vermonters and led to widespread intergenerational damage. In 2021, the state formally apologized for the practice, and the legislature is exploring ongoing responses. "Vermont for the Vermonters" is the result of years of research and new scholarship into the story of the eugenics movement in the state. Examining developments from poor farms to mental institutions and public campaigns under Governor Mead and University of Vermont professor Henry Perkins, Mercedes de Guardiola demonstrates the underlying social and political landscape that helped pave the way for strong support of Vermont’s eugenics policies, determined how they were implemented and carried out, and resulted in a devastating cost for Vermonters. She regrounds Vermont’s actions and policies in the larger context of the state and the nation’s public policies, allowing us to better understand the motivations and long-range consequences of the movement.