The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1916-12-10
PUBLIC LANDS IN U. S. BE-
ING RAPIDLY SETTLED
TWENTY MILLION ACRES CLAIM
ED BY PRIVATE OWNERS DUR
ING PAST YEAR.

Washington, Dec. 8.-Public lands
in the United States are being taken
UP by homeseekers in rapidly increas-
ing quantities as shown in the annual
report of Secretary of the Interior
Lane made public today. Twenty
million acres were claimed by private
owners in the year ending with June
30, as against seventeen millions for
each of the preceding two years, and
still smaller average for previous
years.
OF the two hundred and fifty mil
lion acres of public land still left in
the United States much is in the arid
region. The reclamation service car
ried on construction work on TWEEN
ty-four irrigation projects, completing
ten and adding 5000 farms to terri
tory for which irrigation water is
available. Irrigation water is actual
ly going now to nearly 10000 farms.
The report emphasizes the work OF
the Indian bureau, whose health cam
paign. it is declared, has cut the death
rate among Indians seven in one
thousand. The bureau has conducted
campaign to save Indian babies by
giving Indian mothers proper care.
Hospitals were constructed and add1-
tional physicians were employed in
the health campaigns.
Work in the Indian schools was re-
vised to reduce the hours of academic
work and to increase the number CIV
en- to vocational training. Indian mon
eys carried on deposit in state and
national banks during the year, the
report says, amounted to $22,O0O,0OO;
new regulations were made for leas-
ing oil lands of the Usage nation at
high rate which, the report estimates,
in the first year will pay 100000 in
ROYALTIES; ninety thousand acres of
Indian lands were sold for $1,666,OO0,
and sixteen thousand acres were pur-
chased for landless Indians.
A section of the report dealing with
the pension office shows 105,572 names
on the pension rolls at the end OF the
year decrease of 3S,575 for twelve
months. Civil war soldiers on the
rolls numbered 263,277. Deaths of
civil war soldiers during the year
numbered 34,253. The amount paid
FOR pensions for the year was $780,
5000 against $1G5,51S,OOO for the
previous year.
A patent office report gives the
number of applications of patents dur
ing the year as 10000. Fortyeight
thousand were granted.
The bureau of education report rec
lmmend formation Of division OF
commercial education and division
for the education of exceptional chill
dren. Investigations are urged look
ng to the education of the adult illit-
crate, and better education for the
children in the home
Communication is bestowed on the
work of the bureau Of mines in devel-
oping methods of testing low-grade
complex gold. silver, lead and zinc
pres, which, it is claimed, promise to
'ejuvenate mining in certain parts OF
he county and make valuable millions
Of tons of ore that now cannot be
reated. The bureau, since its organ
cation, has trained 41,0O0 miners in
mine rescue work.
Agricultural possibilities of Alaska
still are a matter Of conjecture, al
.hough in some parts of the territory
he harder cereals and vegetables are
being grown Connection of the rail
~oad now being constructed from Sc
ward to Fairbanks will do much for
he development of Alaska, the report
says