TOWN-SITE AND KINDRED ENTRIES.

The prosperity of a nation is measured largely by the growth of its cities and towns. The establishment of marts of business, trade, and manufacture on the public domain keeps pace with the settlements for agriculture and other pursuits, and in some cases precedes such settlements.

Laws have been enacted by Congress for town-site and kindred purposes as follows:

Section 2286, United States Revised Statutes, for county seats.

Section 2380 authorizes the President to reserve town-sites to be disposed of under section 2381.

Sections 2382 to 2386 provide one method and section 2387 and 2394 provide another for town-site entries.

Additional town-site entries may be made under act of March 3, 1877 (19 Stat., 392). Section 11, act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 1101), authorizes entry of land in Alaska by a trustee for the town-site occupants thereof, and section 16 of that act allows the creation of town sites on mineral lands.

The acts of April 16 and June 27, 1906 (34 Stat., 116 and 519), as amended by act of June 11, 1910 (36 Stat., 465), provide for town sites in reclamation projects.

The act of March 12, 1914 (38 Stat., 305), makes provision for town sites along the Government railroad in Alaska Territory.

Mission sites in said Territory are entered under section 27 of the act of June 6, 1900 (31 Stat., 330).

Town sites on Indian reservations are entered in each case under special acts applicable to the opening of each reservation, and watersupply sites are also under special acts in each case; parks and cemeteries for incorporated cities and towns may be entered under act of September 30, 1890 (26 Stat., 502), and cemeteries for religious, fraternal, and private corporations or associations can be entered under act of March 1, 1907 (34 Stat., 1052); title to trade and manufacturing sites in Alaska is acquired under section 10 of the act of May 14, 1898 (30 Stat., 409).

Lots in the town sites of Poplar, Wolf Point, Brockton, Sprole, Blair, Milk River, Frazier, Oswego, and Macon, Mont., were offered for sale at public auction during the months of June and July, 1914. More than 1,000 lots were sold and the amounts received therefrom were in excess of $80,000.

Lots in the town site of Big Arm, on Flathead Lake, Mont., were sold during August, 1914, and all lots and farm tracts at Siletz, Oreg., were sold during November, 1914.

Lots in the town sites of Parshall and Van Hook, N. Dak., were also offered for sale in November, 1914. Records were established in these towns in the amounts received for lots in excess of their appraised values. One lot at Parshall appraised at $25 sold for $1,000, and a lot at Van Hook appraised at $60 sold for $2,500.

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Additional sales were made of the town lots at Camas, Mont., in July, and at Worley, Idaho, in November, 1914.

In May, 1915, the forfeited and unentered lots in the town sites of Timber Lake and Dupree, S. Dak., were offered for sale and the inequalities of former sales adjusted.

The town site of Solano, N. Mex., has been surveyed and will be offered for sale during the fall of 1915, under section 2381, United States Revised Statutes.

Along the line of the Government railroad in Alaska 23 tracts of land have been reserved for town sites. One of them, Anchorage, has been surveyed and the superintendent of sale reports that 655 lots therein were offered in July, 1915, at public sale and were purchased for the sum of $148,980. The land was a barren Alaskan plain and in scarcely a month it contained 2,500 population, and by reason of the continued increase another sale was held the middle of August, at which 183 lots were sold for $23,000.

During the past year there have been approved 8 town-site applications made by trustees, and 2 have been rejected; 3 applications for town-park sites have been approved, and 1 rejected; 2 town cemetery sites have been approved; 1 orphanage site application has been approved; 3 applications for Alaska trade and manufacturing sites were received and 2 approved; and town-lot applications covering 574 lots in 55 town sites, not including the 17 town sites in Indian reservations, mentioned above, were received, of which number 330 were approved and 173 rejected, the remainder pending.

FLATHEAD INDIAN LANDS.

The Flathead Indian Reservation, situated in the State of Montana, was originally opened to homestead entry in the year 1910, under the act of April 23, 1904 (33 Stat., 302). These lands were considered superior in quality, and there has been great demand for all tracts suitable for farming purposes. By reason of changes of Indian allotments, and other reasons, there were a number of unappraised tracts which were not opened in the year 1910. These were appraised in the year 1913, at prices which were regarded as representing values in 1913, after the surrounding lands had been settled up for three years. The settlers, several of whom went on the land in 1910 and 1911, have objected to paying these prices, and have insisted that the lands should be appraised in accordance with the prices in the original appraisement, made in 1909.

In the last Congress legislation was attempted for their relief, but failed of passage, and action on the applications of these settlers is deferred pursuant to departmental direction, to afford them an opportunity to secure legislation in the ensuing Congress.

A number of settlers located on Flathead lands, classified as timber lands, and there have been numerous homestead applications for these timber lands. These applications have all been rejected for the reason that these lands are not subject to homestead entry until after all the timber has been cut and removed. The act of March 3, 1909 (35 Stat., 781, 796), provides for the sale of the timber on these lands, and that after the sale and removal of the timber such of the lands as are valuable for agricultural purposes shall be sold and disposed of under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. On August 4, 1915, regulations covering the subject were approved by the department. It was provided therein that after the timber has been sold and removed the lands are to be reexamined and the agricultural and grazing lands will be appraised and opened to entry under the homestead laws, the appraised price to be paid as provided in said act of April 23, 1904. No rights are gained by settlement or application until these lands are opened in accordance with the regulations. This office has not been advised by the Indian Office, which office has charge of the sale of this timber, that the timber has been sold and removed from any specific tracts.

Section 13 of said act of April 23, 1904, provides for the sale of lands classified as agricultural lands of the first and second classes and grazing lands undisposed of at the expiration of five years from the taking effect of the act, and pursuant thereto notices issued of the offering on August 16, 1915, of 15,963 acres in the Kalispell district, and on August 23, 1915, of 62,153 acres in the Missoula district.

Certain of the lands in the Flathead Reservation were classified as barren, burned over, or as containing small timber by the original Flathead appraisement commission. The act of April 23, 1904, made no provision for the disposal of these lands, but their disposal at not less than the appraised price was authorized by section 29 of the act of Congress approved June 25, 1910 (36 Stat., 863). Under authority of said act regulations were issued on July 3, 1915, for the offering for sale of the lands thus classified; the lands in the Kalispell district, aggregating 5,710 acres, to be offered on August 18, 1915, and the lands in the Missoula district, aggregating 40,925 acres, to be offered on August 25, 1915.

RESTORATION OF CROW INDIAN LANDS. Approximately 185,000 acres within the former Crow Indian Reservation, Mont., withheld from settlement since 1910, were restored to homestead entry in 320-acre tracts in October, 1914.

OPENING OF STANDING ROCK INDIAN RESERVATION. The diminished Standing Rock Indian Reservation, in North and South Dakota, embracing approximately 1,200,000 acres, was restored to homestead entry in May, 1915. Prior to the opening the area avail

able for homesteads was diminished by allotments to Indians and selections of school lands by the States, to the extent that less than 100,000 acres were available.

SALE OF LEMHI AGENCY, IDAHO.

Instructions have been issued for the public sale at Lemhi, Idaho, on September 13, 1915, under the act of Congress approved July 19, 1912 (37 Stat., 195), of the Lemhi Agency and school plant and farm. This property consists of 434 acres of land, which have been appraised at prices ranging from $10 to $35 per acre, the total appraisement being $10,400, and 23 buildings appraised at $4,260.

INDIAN ALLOTMENTS.

The wisdom of a regulation adopted in September, 1913, and referred to in my report of last year, to the effect that no application for allotment on the public domain made under the provisions of the act of February 8, 1887 (24 Stat., 388), as amended, be accepted unless accompanied by a certificate of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs showing that the applicant is an Indian entitled to an allotment of public lands, is made further apparent from the fact that during the past fiscal year nearly 600 applications made by persons not entitled to take public lands by allotment were finally rejected and some 95,000 acres of land thus rendered subject to disposal under the settlement and other applicable land laws.

During the past year 2,324 trust patents, embracing 284,713.33 acres of land, were issued to Indians. During the same period 1,699 patents, conveying title in fee, were issued to Indians found competent to assume charge of their own affairs and to purchasers of allotted lands. The issuance of these fee patents operated to relieve 202,050.06 acres of land from restriction against alienation and rendered that amount of land subject to taxation.

FLATHEAD VILLA SITES, MONTANA.

The act of April 12, 1910 (36 Stat., 296), provided for the survey and sale as villa sites of lands around Flathead Lake, in the former Flathead Indian Reservation. These lands are situated along the south half of the lake. The lands adjoining the north half of the lake were disposed of many years ago, and numerous homes and fruit orchards have been established thereon. Flathead Lake has an area of approximately 360 square miles, and several steamboats ply between the various towns upon its borders.

Under regulations approved March 20, 1915, tracts set aside as villa sites under the provisions of the act of April 12, 1910, supra, within the former Flathead Indian Reservation, Mont., were offered

for sale at public auction, beginning at Polson, Mont., on July 26, 1915. The sale was adjourned to Dayton, Mont., on August 6 and concluded at Kalispell, Mont., on August 7, 1915.

There were 889 parcels of land, not less than 2 nor more than 5 acres in area, fronting on Flathead Lake, and under the regulations could be sold for the minimum of $10 per acre. All the lands, however, brought far in excess of that amount, except about 65 acres, sold for the benefit of the Grand Army of the Republic at the minimum price.

Purchases were made by residents of many of the States and by civic and in behalf of patriotic organizations. Not one of the tracts remains unsold.

The land, having a minimum valuation of less than $35,000, sold for approximately $125,000, some tracts bringing about $300 per acre. As population increases the demand for villa sites, summer homes, hotels, sanitariums, and health, recreation, or pleasure resorts will become more and more urgent, and a general law should be enacted authorizing the entry of public lands for such purposes, by an amendment of sections 2380 and 2381, United States Revised Statutes, as recommended in report on Senate bill 1214, Sixty-third Congress. There are numerous islands reserved by the Government for lighthouse and other purposes in the Great Lakes, and in the rivers and lands along the shore lines of the country, which from time to time are being released from reservation or are being brought into market, many of which would make ideal places for said purposes.

RAILROAD GRANTS-RIGHTS OF WAY.

A review of the year's business in the adjustment of railroad grants, the adjudication of "Carey Act" propositions, and right-of-way applications is, upon the whole, very satisfactory.

During the past year there were finally adjudicated and closed 5,065 cases of all kinds, as against 4,245 cases of a similar character during the previous year.

In the present year the total area disposed of was 4,403,606.05 acres, as against 1,189,897.27 acres in 1914.

The total area certified and patented under railroad and wagon road grants was 1,624,142.27 acres.

Early in the year a new system was inaugurated, whereby all cases taken up for examination and adjudication were required to be finally disposed of without reference to the amount of work entailed, and all railroad lists were required to be closed out as a whole; that is to say, when a railroad list is taken up for action the entire list is then disposed of, without passing the more difficult questions for future adjudication.