664 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



deter entries by actual settlers. The cash receipts 

 were less, by $690,322.23 than during the preceding 



The entire surveyed area of the public domain is 

 680,253,094 acres, of which 26,077,531 acres were 

 surveyed during the past year, leaving 1,154,471,762 

 acres still unsurveyed. 



The report of the Commissioner presents many 

 interesting suggestions in regard to the management 

 and disposition of the public domain and the modi- 

 fication of existing laws, the apparent importance 

 of which should insure for them the careful consid- 

 eration of Congress. 



The number of pensioners still continues to de- 

 crease, the highest number having been reached 

 during the year ending June 30, 1873. During the 

 last year, 11,557 names were added to the rolls, and 

 12,977 were dropped therefrom, showing a net de- 

 crease of 1,420. But while the number of pensioners 

 has decreased, the annual amount due on the pen- 

 sion-rolls has increased $44,733.18. This is caused 

 by the greatly increased average rate of pensions, 

 which, by the liberal legislation of Congress, has 

 increased from $90.26 in 1872 to $103.91 in 1875 to 

 each invalid pensioner, an increase in the average 

 rate of fifteen per cent, in the three years. During 

 the year ending June 30, 1875, there was paid on 

 account of pensions, including the expenses of dis- 

 bursement, $29.683,116, being $910,632 less than was 

 paid the preceding year. This reduction in amount 

 of expenditures was produced by the decrease in the 

 amount of arrearages due on allowed claims, and on 

 pensions, the rate of which was increased by the 

 legislation of the preceding session of Congress. At 

 the close of the last fiscal year there were on the 

 pension-rolls 234,821 persons, of whom 210,363 were 

 army pensioners, 105,478 being invalids and 104,885 

 widows and dependent relatives ; 3,420 were navy 

 pensioners, of whom 1,636 were invalids and 1,784 

 widows and dependent relatives ; 21,038 were pen- 

 sioners of the War of 1812, 15,875 of whom were sur- 

 vivors and 5,163 were widows. 



It is estimated that $29,535,000 will be required 

 for the payment of pensions for the next fiscal year, 

 an amount $965,000 less than the estimate for the 

 present year. 



The geological explorations have been prosecuted 

 with energy during the year, covering an area of 

 about forty thousand square miles in the Territories 

 of Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, developing the 

 agricultural and mineral resources, and furnishing 

 interesting scientific and topographical details of 

 that region. 



The method for the treatment of the Indians, 

 adopted at the beginning of mv first term, has been 

 steadily pursued, and with satisfactory and encour- 

 aging results. It has been productive of evident 

 improvement in the condition of that race, and will 

 be continued, with only such modifications as fur- 

 ther experience may indicate to be necessary. 



The board heretofore appointed to take charge of 

 the articles and materials pertaining to the War, the 

 Navy, the Treasury, the Interior, and the Post-Office 

 Departments, and the Department of Agriculture, 

 the Smithsonian Institution, and the Commission 

 of Food-Fishes, to be contributed, under the legisla- 

 tion of last session, to the International Exhibition 

 to be held at Philadelphia during the centennial 

 year 1876, has been diligent in the discharge of the 

 duties which have devolved upon it ; and the prepa- 

 rations so far made with the means at command 

 give assurance that the governmental contribution 

 will be made one of the marked characteristics of 

 the exhibition. The board has observed commend- 

 able economy in the matter of the erection of a build- 

 ing for < the governmental exhibit, the expense of 

 which, it is estimated, will not exceed, say, $80,000. 

 This amount has been withdrawn, under the law, 

 from the appropriations of five of the principal De- 

 partments, which leaves some of those Departments 



without sufficient means to render their respective 

 practical exhibits complete and satisfactory. The 

 exhibition being an international one, and the Gov- 

 ernment being a voluntary contributor, it is my 

 opinion that its contribution should be of a charac- 

 ter, in quality and extent, to sustain the dignity and 

 credit of so distinguished a contributor. The advan- 

 tages to the country of a creditable display are, in an 

 international point of view, of the first importance, 

 while an indifferent or uncreditable participation by 

 the Government would be humiliating to the patri- 

 otic feelings of our people themselves. I commend 

 the estimates of the board for the necessary addi- 

 tional appropriations to the favorable consideration 

 of Congress. 



The powers of Europe, almost without exception, 

 many of the South American states, and even the 

 more distant Eastern powers, have manifested their 

 friendly sentiments toward the United States and 

 the interest of the world in our progress by taking 

 steps to join with us in celebrating the centennial 01 

 the nation, and I strongly recommend that a more 

 national importance be given to this exhibition by 

 such legislation and by such appropriation as will 

 insure its success. Its value in bringing to our 

 shores innumerable useful works of art and skill, 

 the commingling of the citizens of foreign countries 

 and our own, and the interchange of ideas and man- 

 ufactures will far exceed any pecuniary outlay we 

 may make. 



I transmit herewith the report of the Commission- 

 er of Agriculture, together with the reports of the 

 commissioners, the Board of Audit, and the Board of 

 Health of the District of Columbia, to all of which I 

 invite your attention. 



The Bureau of Agriculture has accomplished much 

 in disseminating useful knowledge to the agricultur- 

 ist, and also in introducing new and useful produc- 

 tions adapted to our soil and climate, and is worthy 

 of the continued encouragement of the Government. 



The report of the Commissioner of Education, 

 which accompanies the report of the Secretary of the 

 Interior, shows a gratifying progress in educational 

 matters. 



In nearly every annual message that I have had 

 the honor of transmitting to Congress I have called 

 attention to the anomalouSj not to say scandalous, 

 condition of affairs existing in the Territory of Utah, 

 and have asked for definite legislation to correct it. 

 That polygamy should exist in a free, enlightened, 

 and Christian country, without the power to punish 

 so flagrant a crime against decency and morality, 

 seems preposterous. True, there is no law to sus- 

 tain this unnatural vice, but what is needed is a law 

 to punish it as a crime, and at the same time to fix 

 the status of the innocent children, the offspring of 

 this system ; and of the possibly innocent plural 

 wives. But, as an institution, polygamy should be 

 banished from the land. 



"While this is being done, I invite the attention of 

 Congress to another, though perhaps no less an evil, 

 the importation of Chinese women, but few of whom 

 are brought to our shores to pursue honorable or use- 

 ful occupations. 



Observations while visiting the Territories of "Wy- 

 oming, Utah, and Colorado, during the past autumn, 

 convinced me that existing laws regulating the dis- 

 position of public lands, timber, etc., and probably 

 the mining laws themselves, are very defective, and 

 should be carefully amended, and at an early day. 

 In territory where cultivation of the soil can only 

 be followed by irrigation, and where irrigation is not 

 practicable the lands can only be used as pasturage, 

 and this only where stock can reach water (to quench 

 its thirst)j and cannot be governed by the same laws 

 as to entries as lands every acre of which is an inde- 

 pendent estate by itself. 



Land must be held in larger quantities to justify 

 the expense of conducting water upon it to make it 

 fruitful, or to justify utilizing it as pasturage. The 



