The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1856-01-22
PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.
Report ofthe Secretary Of the Interior.

nHoWS tudt tuc Dcpaftincht 10 III q Coihioito-
bic condition The quantity of land sold at
graduated prices for the last fiscal year was g.
720. 474 acres, and the amount received for il
was $2,35s,9lS. In the year ending Sept.
80, l5,3l5,283 acres of land have been sur
veyed, the true boundary line between Ala
bama and Florida has been established, and
preparations have been made by the correc-
tion of old surveys TO discontinue the office OF
Surveyor-General in several of the Districts
The quantity of land already subject to entry
was 80 large that no new land has been
brought into the market.
The quantity Of lands sold during the last fscal
yenr was. I, ,3lo, ,ooU.OO acres.
Received ther $ll ,4s5.3s4 rs.
Located with military scrip and land
warrants. Il, ,345, go acres.
Swamp lands selected for States ,470
Selected on donations for railroads. Sell 55s 90 acres
, Making total Of. "a .557 ,409 Sc acres.
This is an increase of S,693,7S9.Sl acres
over the previous year, of lands sold for cash,
and decrease of 2,O72, 222 .2G acres located
with scrip and warrants will be much larger
under the recent bounty land law.
Tire amount of lands sold during the second
ind third quarters of the present year is about
6,264,l73 acres; bog an increase of about
81. ST. s25 acres Tin cash $477, ,442.06) OH that
Of the corresponding quarters of the preceding
year.
The quantity of land covered by warraEtts..
issued TO soldiers of all the wars in which the
United States has been engaged, is $685.
4l2 acres. For the satisfaction Of Virginia
land warrants there have been taken l,46O,-
900 acres. Recently scrip has been issued TO
satisfy this class of warrants. In lS46 a
quantity of land one and a half sections in
width, on each side of the Fox river and the
lakes through which it passes, was granted
to the State of Wisconsin for improving the
Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and connecting
them by canal. This grant including 260,-
433 acres. The Land Office, under subse-
quent acts, gave Wisconsin width of five
sections, and increased the length of the grant
so as to make it 2s4,269 acres; but when
the Company, which succeeded to the rights
of the State, asks f,r the same grant along
the Wisconsin, the Department, oddly enough
thinks the Company unreasonable, and re-
jects the project Of giving them $4,000 acres
more. The Secretary recommends that Off
cers connected with the sale and survey of the
public lands should be prohibited from bccom-
ing purchasers. The swamp land grants crc-
ate considerable difficulty, but in this, as in
other instances the Secretary advises a gen.
erous policy. The California Land Commits
sion are making very good time, and will not
want any more money. A new Commission
must be issucd to adjust Indian land titles,
as the old one did not do its work. The Pen
sion Office has done "a very heavy business,
and clerks have been detailed from the Land
Office. The number of applications under
of which SO, 500 had been examined, and 50,-
s92 allowed. The number of warrants Issued
was 55,9l7, covering 7,57S,32O acres. Sec
retary thinks it strange that pensioners who
caught the fever in Mexico, and are drawing
a pension only so long as they have the fever,
never get well. He mildly advises that the
old principle Of indulgence be fallen back upon.
He docs not like the statutes oflimiting pros
ecutions for perjury and forgery in pension
pension roll mustered l4,4Ss on the 30th of
June, and the amount disburscd for the year
previous was $l,5O5,ll2. The sums in the
hands of Pension agents had then been cut
down to $23O,O99, from S94S,4 ,4a6 on the
3lst of March, 1853. 1t had been customa-
ry for them under appropriation clauses at
tached to pension bills to accumulate large
amounts of money in their hands, which has
only just been drained off He advises that
the appropriating clauses be cut off and those
bills placed on the same footing as Others
I T., Il. .,, tha
of auditing pension accounts so as to secure
greater uniformity.
The feld-work of the Mexican boundary
line has been mpleted-twenty millions Of
acres have been acquired by it, the eastern
portion of which is rich, in wheat, corn and
tobacco, gold, silver and copper, whilst the
west is a desert. The Indians are friendly
and agriculturally inclined. The Secretary
advises that something be done for them; he
recommends that the northwest line be run
but, the one which we did not fight about
because it was 81 deg. 40 lat. some islands
between Vancouver's and the continent are
desirable. The Patent Office is happily re-
and the years work has been a.
bout 1000 patents. The Secretary gives rea-
sons for using part of the Patent Office
building for the Indian Bureau. In the first
place they want it, and then tho Patent-Of-
flee clerks can bear little crowding; then,
thirdly, the Patent Fund did not pay for tho
building. Another appropriation is wanted
for the west wing of the Patent Office build
ing. and the north part should be commenced.
The curiosities in the National Gallery in that
building should be cleared out to make room
for the display of rejected models. ''The ap-
for agricultural purposes are dis
missed in five lines. United States Court
buildings are suggested in New York, Bos-
ton and Baltimore. Two hundred and twcn-
ty-three terms are held in SO different places.
From May 4, ls45, to May 80, 1855, the
fees of the clerk at st. Josephs in Louisiana
amounted to $l3 95, and other places in
Louisiana are in the same condition. These
districts should be abolished. The Depart
mcnt wants fre-proof buildings, and thcy
should be commenced Immediately, as it will
soon be crowded out of the Patent Officc.--
The public grounds need protection and
landscape gardener; the Long Bridge over