v 



the 

 iner 



IDAHO. 



359 



Valuation. The total assessed valuation of 

 the State, exclusive of railroad property, accord- 

 ing to the county reports made in September, is 

 $22,942,910. This is about 15 per cent, less-than 

 it was in 1893. The railroad assessment is about 

 $8,000,000. The assessment of main lines of all 

 railroads for 1894 is fixed at $6,500 a mile, in- 

 cluding rolling stock ; branch lines, $5.000 a 

 mile; narrow gauges, $4,000 a mile. The as- 

 sessment on telegraph lines is $50 a mile for 

 poles and the first wire, and $12.50 a mile for 

 each additional wire; instruments. $3.65 each. 

 Assessment of telephone lines is $42 a mile. 



Education. The financial report of the 

 President of the Regents of the University is 

 as follows: Balance on hand Jan. 1, 1893, 

 $5,689.98 ; receipts from all sources during the 

 year, $76,952.41 ; total, $82,642.39. Total dis- 

 bursements, $62,587.43. Balance Jan. 1, 1894, 

 $20,054.96. The enrollment in December, 1893, 

 was 194. The chair of Military Instruction has 

 been created, to which a lieutenant of the United 

 States army has been assigned. He receives $400 

 in addition to his regular army salary. The ex- 

 terior, basement, and first story of the univer- 

 sity building has been completed at a cost of 

 $77,000. 



Soldiers' Home. The Soldiers' Home, 2 

 miles from Boise City, the corner stone of which 

 was laid on May 23, was completed in Novem- 

 ber. The building is of brick and cut stone, 

 and cost $13,499. It has a frontage of 100 feet, 

 with a central tower and a tower at either end. 

 There is accommodation for 60 beds, single and 

 double. 



Penitentiary. The last Legislature cut 

 down the Penitentiary appropriation from $50,- 

 000 to $40,000? It was found that, in conse- 

 quence of legitimate increase in the expenses of 

 the institution, the appropriation would be ex- 

 hausted by June 1, 1894. To provide funds 

 without issuing deficiency warrants, the dis- 

 count on which would be 25 per cent., the State 

 officials met on April 25, and requested the State 

 Treasurer to make a special deposit of the $14,- 

 850 derived as a premium of 11 per cent, from 

 the sale of the wagon-road bonds, and to " pay 

 out the same upon accounts duly examined and 

 allowed by the State Board of Prison Commis- 

 sioners, and to hold the vouchers in place of the 

 money thus paid out, so that the next Legislature 

 may properly adjudicate the same." The act 

 authorizing the issue and sale of the wagon-road 

 bonds did not make any provision for the appor- 

 tionment of the premium to any of the funds of 

 the State. The last report of the warden of the 

 Penitentiary, made Dec. 3, 1893, shows that dur- 



throughout the United States during 1893 was 

 about 60 per cent. 



Metal Output. The Boise Assay Office re- 

 ports that during 1893 the production of gold 

 was 81,930 fine ounces, valued at $1,693,641 ; of 

 silver, 3,455.662 fine ounces, valued at $4,467,823. 

 The production of lead was 72,135,781 pounds, 

 valued at $2,524,753. The total metal produc- 

 tion was valued at $8,686,217, as against $7,814,- 

 015 in 1892. 



State Wagon Road. In September the Gov- 

 ernor appointed viewers to inspect the completed 

 portions of the wagon road. Tbesp were the 

 section between the Dumacq place and the falls 

 of Little Salmon river, the Lemhi and Custer 

 divisions, and the sections between Banner and 

 Bear valley. It was said that by Nov. 1 the 

 road would be completed from Salmon City to 

 Boise City, a distance of 250 miles. 



Irrigation. The first session of the Idaho 

 commission of the National Irrigation Congress 

 was held in Boise City in March. For conven- 

 ience of investigation, the State was divided into 

 3 sections, as follows : (1) All the Snake river 

 drainage west of Wood river ; (2) all the Snake 

 river drainage east of Wood river, and also the 

 counties of Lemhi and Custer ; (3) all the drain- 

 age of the lower Snake river and the counties in 

 North Idaho. In September the work of blast- 

 ing out the rock in Whisky and Bay Horse 

 rapids in Snake river channel, for which the 

 Government has made an appropriation of $25,- 

 000, was resumed. 



State Land. The total grants of land to the 

 State, including the sixteenth and thirty-sixth 

 sections granted for the public schools, aggre- 

 gate nearly 4,000,000 acres. Following is the 

 condition of each land grant in September: 

 Acres granted to agricultural college, 90,000 ; 

 selected, 75,703-5. Granted to charitable and 

 other institutions, 150,000; selected. 96,617-16. 

 Granted to insane asylum, 50,000 ; selected, 42,- 

 670-8. Granted to normal schools, 100,000; 

 selected, 46,842-4. Granted to Penitentiary, 

 50,000 ; selected, 45,105-71. Granted to public 

 buildings, 32,000; selected, 23,569-19. Granted 

 to scientific school, 100,000; selected, 39,266-1. 

 Granted to university, 50,000 ; selected, 45,558*01. 

 Total granted, 622,000 acres ; total selected, 415,- 

 332-93 acres ; unselected, 206,667-07 acres. 



Placer Claim Decision. The Secretary of 

 the Interior has decided, on an appeal from the 

 ruling of the Commissioner of the General Land 

 Office, that "there must be a discovery upon 

 each 20-acre tract included in a placer location 

 of 160 acres, and a location made of that amount 

 of land upon a single discovery is made void, ex- 



ing the preceding year there had been confined cept as to the 20 acres immediately surrounding 

 132 prisoners, and that the cost of food per diem it." The Secretary indirectly lays down another 



per capita was 15^- cents. A stone wall around 

 the prison has been built by its inmates, all the 

 stone needed for it and for the buildings being 

 quarried and cut by them. 



Insurance "Rule. By a regulation of the 

 Pacific Insurance Union, which went into effect 

 July 16, insurance companies will pay only three 

 fourths of any loss by fire in the State. This 

 rule was made necessary by Idaho's excessive loss 

 ratio. From 1880 to 1890 it was 63 per cent. 

 In 1892 it advanced to 79 per cent,, and in 1893 

 it leaped to 114| per cent. The loss ratio 



rule : that, while a discovery must be made on 

 each 20 acres, the work can all be done at one 

 place. Those locating a tract of 160 acres must 

 be able to show that at the time of location they 

 had discovered mineral on each 20-acre tract, 

 but beyond that the subdivisions must not be 

 recognized. The effect of this decision is to pre- 

 vent appropriation of a lot of nonmineral land 

 on the strength of having found mineral on some 

 portion of the tract. The case arose over a stone- 

 quarry location near Anaconda, the applicants 

 having discovered a body of lime rock contain- 



