Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-12-18
HOMESTEAD LANDS
NEARLY ALL TAKEN
Reclamation Service Adds Five
Thousand Farms to Avail.
able List During Year.
INDIAN DEATHS INCREASE

Washington, Dec. H.--Public lands
in the United States are being taken
up by homesteaders in rapidly in
creasing quantities as shown in the
annual report OF Secretary Of the In
terror Lane made public today. fwsrI-
ty million acres were claimed by pri-
vate owners in the year ending with
June 80, as against 100000 for each
of the preceding two years and still
smaller average for previous years.
OF the 250,000,000 acres OF public
land still left in the United States
much is in the arid region. The rec
lamation service carried on construc-
tion work on twenty-four irrigation
projects, completing ten and adding
5000 farms to territory for which ir-
rigation water is available. Irriga-
tion water is actually 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
a campaign to save Indian babies by
giving Indian mothers proper care.
Hospitals were constructed and addi-
tional physicians were employed in
the health campaigns,
Work of Indian Schools.
Work in the Indian schools was re-
vised to reduce the hours of academic
work and to increase the number
given TO vocational training. Indian
moneys carried on deposit in state
and national banks during the year,
the report says, amounted to $4,000
900; new regulations were made for
leasing oil lands Of the Usage nation
at high rate, which, the report es-
Inmates, in the first year will pay
100000 in royalties; 10000 acrcs OF
Indian lands were sold for 81 l.666,o00
and 10000 acres were purchased fer
landless Indians.
A section of the report dealing with
the pension office shows 709,S72
names on the pension rolls at the end
of the year, a decrease of 38,575 for
twelve months. Civil war soldiers on
the rolls numbered 362,277. Deaths
of civil war soldiers during the year
numbered 34,2s2. The amount paid
for pensions for the year was $751;
l55,000 against $l6S,5lS,00O for the
previous year.
A patent Office report gives the
number OF applications for patents
during the year as 10000. Forty-eight
thousand were granted.
Bureau of Education.
The Bureau of Education report
recommends formation OF division
of commercial education and divis-
ion for the education OF exceptional
children. Investigations are urged
looking TO the education OF the adult
illiterate, and better education for the
children in the home.
Commendation is bestowed on the
work OF the Bureau OF Mines in de-
veloping methods of testing low
grade complex gold, silver, lead and
zinc ores which, it is claimed, prom
ise to rejuvenate mining in certain
parts Of the country and make valu-
able millions of tons OF ore that now
cannot be treated The bureau since
its organization has trained 4l,OO0
miners in mine rescue work.
Agricultural possibilities Of Alaska
still are a matter of conjecture, al
though in some parts of the territory
the harder cereals and vegetables are
being grown. Completion Of the rail-
road now being constructed from
Seward to Fairbanks will do much
for the development of Alaska, the
report saws.