UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



823 



the third-rate cruisers Hartford, Mayflower, Mo- 

 hican, Adams, Alliance, Essex, Enterprise, Alert, 

 and Ranger; the ram Katahdin; the single-turret 

 monitors Ajax, Canonicus, Mahopac, Manhattan, 

 Comanche, Catskill, Jason, Lehigh, Montauk, 

 Nahant, Nantucket, and Passaic; the unprotected 

 cruisers Detroit, Montgomery, and Marblehead; 

 the dispatch boat Dolphin; the steel gunboats 

 Bennington, Concord, Yorktown, Castine, and 

 Machias; the iron gunboat Topeka; the com- 

 . posite gunboats Annapolis, Vicksburg, Wheeling, 

 Marietta, Newport, and Princeton; the light- 

 draught gunboats Wilmington, Helena, Nashville, 

 and Monocacy; the dynamite gunboat Vesuvius; 

 the training ship Fern; the fourth-rate cruiser 

 Michigan; the gunboats Petrel, Bancroft, and 

 Pinta; and the torpedo boats Gushing, Ericsson, 

 Foote, Rodgers, Winslow, Porter, Dupont, Morris, 

 Talbot, Gwin, Mackenzie, McKee, Manly, Somers, 

 and Stiletto. 



The vessels under construction were the first- 

 -lass battle ships Maine, Missouri, and Ohio, of 

 12,500 tons, and Kearsarge, Kentucky, Illinois, 

 Alabama, and Wisconsin, of 11,525 tons; the 

 monitors Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, and Wy- 

 oming; a gunboat; the destroyers Bainbridge, 

 Barry, Chauncey, Dale, Decatur, Hopkins, Hull, 

 Lawrence, Macdonough, Paul Jones, Perry, 

 Preble, Stewart, Truxton, Whipple, and Worden, 

 of 420 to 435 tons, engined to steam 28 to 30 

 knots; the submarine torpedo boat Plunger; and 

 the torpedo boats Rowan, Dahlgren, T. A. M. 

 Craven, Farragut, Davis, Fox, Stringham, Golds- 

 borough, Bailey, 'Bagley, Barney, Biddle, Blakely, 

 T)e Long, Nicholson, O'Brien, Shubrick, Stockton, 

 Thornton, Tingey, and Wilkes. Including these, 

 the navy numbers 12 first-class battle ships, 1 of 

 the second class, 2 armored cruisers, 1 armored 

 ram, 6 double-turret monitors, 4 iron and 13 steel 

 single-turret monitors, 13 'protected cruisers, 2 

 protected wood-sheathed cruisers, 3 unprotected 

 cruisers, 9 gunboats, 3 light-draught gunboats, 6 

 composite gunboats, 1 training ship, 1 dynamite 

 gun vessel, 1 dispatch vessel, 16 torpedo-boat de- 

 stroyers, and 35 steel torpedo boats; total, 129 

 effective vessels, in addition to which there are 



5 iron cruising vessels, 1 submarine torpedo boat, 

 1 wooden torpedo boat, 8 wooden cruising vessels, 



6 sailing vessels, 14 tugs, 11 wooden steamers 

 and f> sailing vessels unfit for service, and 8 ves- 

 sels captured in the Spanish war, making the 

 total number of vessels in the navy 189. 



The first-class battle ships Georgia, New Jersey, 

 and Pennsylvania were authorized in 1899, also 

 the armored cruisers California, Nebraska, and 

 West Virginia. The new steel gunboats Chatta- 

 nooga, Cleveland, Denver, Des Moines, Galveston, 

 and Tacoma will have a displacement of 3,200 

 tons, engines of 4,700 horse power, capable of 

 making 16 knots, 10 5-inch rapid-firing guns in 

 the main battery, and a secondary armament of 

 8 6-pounders, 2 1 -pounders, and 2 Colt automatic 

 guns. The number of large, swift, and powerful 

 armored cruisers of great coal endurance is dis- 

 proportionate to the rest of the navy, and in the 

 programme recommended to Congress the Secre- 

 tary of the Navy has proposed the construction 

 of 12 sheathed and coppered gunboats of 900 tons 

 in addition to 3 new armored cruisers and 3 pro- 

 tected cruisers. The armored cruisers will have a 

 displacement of about 13,000 tons, and will carry 

 the heaviest armor and the most powerful ord- 

 nance for vessels of their class and have the high- 

 est practicable speed and great radius of action. 

 The protected cruisers are to have a displacement 

 of 8,000 tons, to carry powerful batteries, and to 

 Tiave high speed combined with coal endurance. 



There were 1,340 commissioned officers and 177 

 warrant officers on the active list of the navv at 

 the end of 1899. The enlisted force of the navy 

 on June 30, 1899, numbered 4,370 petty officers 

 and 10,131 men; total, 14,501. The number of 

 apprentices was 2,221. The marine corps consists 

 of 201 officers and 0,000 men. 



Pensions. The number of pensioners on the 

 roll on June 30, 1899, was 991,5 19, showing a 

 decrease during the year of 2,195. Then; were 

 310,834 invalids, (553 nurses, and 1)0,608 widows 

 and dependent children drawing army pensions 

 and 4,721 invalids and 2,293 widows and depend- 

 ent children drawing navy pensions, under the 

 general pension act; and 405,987 invalids and 

 124,127 widows and dependents connected with 

 the army, and 14,925 invalids and 6,139 widows 

 and dependents connected with the navy were 

 drawing pensions under the act of June 27, 1890. 

 The number of claims allowed in the course of 

 1899 was 1,975 for invalids and 3,460 for widows, 

 etc., making a total of 1,616,391 since 1861. The 

 sum disbursed during the year was $139,482,696; 

 the total disbursements since 1891 have been $2,- 

 423,592,488. There was 1 pensioner of the War of 

 1812 surviving on June 30, 1899; of widows of 

 soldiers of 1812 there were 1,998. The pensioners 

 of the war with Mexico numbered 9,204; widows, 

 8,175. Survivors of Indian wars numbered 9,204; 

 widows, 177. Pensions for the war with Spain 

 were granted to 123 invalids and 177 widows. 



Public Lands. The area of the public lands 

 remaining vacant and subject to entry and 

 settlement on July 1, 1899, was 929,308,068 acres, 

 of which 318,205,724 acres had been surveyed. Of 

 the unsurveyed lands 359,492,760 acres were in 

 Alaska, and the greater part of the remainder 

 consisted of barren mountain and desert. Not in- 

 cluded in these figures are military and Indian 

 reservations, reservoir sites and timber reserva- 

 tions, and tracts covered by selections, railroad 

 grants, and unadjudicated claims, a part of which 

 may be added to the public domain. The receipts 

 of the General Land Office in 1899 were $3,070,137, 

 of which $2,594,690 were from disposal of public 

 land, $442,914 from disposal of Indian land, and 

 $890,702 from fees and commissions. 



The Patent Office. The number of applica- 

 tions for patents in the calendar year 1898 was 

 33,915; for design patents, 1,843; for reissues, 84; 

 for registration of trade-marks, 1,796; for regis- 

 tration of labels, 316; for prints, 50; number of 

 caveats filed, 1,695; total, 39,683. The number of 

 patents granted, including designs and reissues, 

 w r as 22,267; of trade-marks registered, 1,238; of 

 labels, 200; of prints, 35; total, 23,740. There 

 were 4,368 patents withheld for nonpayment of 

 fees. The number of patents, that expired was 

 15,548. The total number of applications since 

 1837 has been 1,073,950; total number of caveats 

 filed, 109,074; total number of original patents 

 granted, including designs, 623,535. The receipts 

 of the Patent Office from its first establishment 

 till the end of 1898 were $1,137,734; expenses, $1,- 

 136,196. 



Commerce and Production. The number of 

 farms in the United States in 1890 was 4,564,651, 

 having a total acreage of 623,218,619 acres. The 

 estimated value of farm products is $2,460,107,- 

 454 per annum. The forest area of the United 

 States, exclusive of Alaska, is estimated at 699,- 

 500,000 acres, or 1,094,514 square miles, being 

 about 36.5 per cent, of the total land area. About 

 2,250,000,000 cubic feet of lumber are consumed 

 annually in building and manufactures in the 

 United States, 27,000,000 cubic feet are required 

 for railroad ties, 30,000,000 cubic feet for fen- 



