THE RELIEF AND CARE OF DEPENDENTS 487
Connecticut and Louisiana subsidize private hospitals and have the privilege of sending indigents there to be treated without pay. In some states, as in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, the poor authorities may send the indigent sick to hospitals at public expense.[1] In Texas the law provides that this shall be done if there is a hospital within the county.[2] Michigan has a hospital in connection with the medical department of the State University, to which the indigent may be sent for treatment.[3]
III. FARMING AND BINDING OUT.
In dealing with the farming and binding out of paupers, we are dealing with practically obsolete forms. In some states, as in Connecticut, New York, and North Carolina, "farming out" the poor is prohibited.[4] It is permissible in a number of states as an alternative for establishing an almshouse and maintaining the poor there. In Maine the overseers may establish an almshouse for the poor, or contract for not longer than three years for their support.[5] Similar authority is found in several states, among which we may name Tennessee, Oklahoma, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Idaho.[6] In the state of Mississippi the county supervisors are authorized to contract with persons for the support of paupers for their work.[7]
As to binding out, the laws are old and apply to the vagrant poor rather than to the dependent in general. Such laws are found in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, and Georgia.[8] The laws of the four New England states are very similar, so we quote that of New Hampshire. It reads:
The overseers of the poor in any town may, by written contract, bind out to labor for a term not exceeding one year, or employ in their workhouse, every person residing in the town who lives idly and pursues no lawful busi-
