D.-Report of the surveyor general of Dakota. UNITED STATES SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, SIR: In compliance with instructions contained in your letter of April 1, 1878, I have the honor to transmit herewith my annual report, in duplicate, of surveying operations in this district for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. FIELD WORK. Surveys to the amount of $17,703.08 were executed, covering 7 miles 30 chains and 71 links of standard lines; 244 miles 17 chains and 52 links of township lines; 2,653 miles 21 chains and 71 links of section and meander lines, comprising an area of 938,086.79 acres, and making a total of 18,738,760.20 acres of surveyed land in the Territory to this date, exclusive of Indian and military reservations, town sites, and mining claims. Four town sites have been surveyed and platted during the fiscal year, viz: Ingleside, Lawrence County, containing 28.64 acres, but included within the surveyed boundaries of Deadwood. Oro, Lawrence County, containing 320 acres. Rapid City, Pennington County, containing 640 acres. These town sites are all located in the mining regions of the Black Hills. OFFICE WORK. Field notes have been transcribed and diagrams made of the surveys described in schedule G (herewith), and duplicate field notes, plats, and diagrams transmitted to the General Land Office. Triplicate plats and descriptive lists of the surveys executed during the year have been transmitted to the proper local land offices. The original notes of these surveys have been securely bound and indexed. One copy of the field notes and four copies each of the plats of 88 mining claims have also been made, and the proper number transmitted to the local land office and claimants. The necessary labor incident to the proper organization of a mining department, hitherto unknown to this office, has been very great and annoying, owing to causes beyond my immediate control, and the consequent drain upon the incidental fund has not been compensated by a corresponding increase of appropriation for this depart ment. PROPOSED SURVEYS. In calling your attention in this place to my estimate for surveys in this district for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, I feel it my duty to give some further reasons for those estimates. During the past six or eight months I have received numerous letters and petitions from persons living or proposing to locate upon unsurveyed lands, asking that the government surveys be extended over the same. (In one case a petition signed by 59 "actual settlers on unsurveyed lands"; in another, a petition signed by 23 settlers on unsurveyed lands.") So far as the appropriation for the present fiscal year enabled me to do so, I have met this demand by contracting for surveys at points where they seemed to be most needed; nevertheless, I have been obliged to reply to many that public surveys would not reach their localities the present season. The number of persons located upon unsurveyed land in the Territory will largely increase during the present fiscal year. I am led to this opinion from experience in the past and the conditions inducing immigration which prevail at the present time. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878— The local land officers in the Territory disposed of about The Winona and Saint Peter Railroad Company sold Total public and railroad lands Add to this, estimated number of acres of unsurveyed land located upon by settlers Which gives ..... Acres. 1, 461, 808.00 21, 270.06 600,000.00 2,083, 078.06 82,000.00 2, 165, 078.06 as the total number of acres taken by actual settlers during the last fiscal year, not including the Black Hills country with its 25,000 inhabitants, where no surveys, except mining claims and town sites, have been made. The total number of acres surveyed in the Territory during the corresponding fiscal year was 938,086.79, which shows that 1,226,991.27 more acres were taken by actual settlers last year than were surveyed during the same time. This disproportion will be still greater (to the detriment of the best interests of the government and the Territory) the present fiscal year. It is a wise policy to survey much more land than will probably meet any immediate demand, for the reason that the pioneers, although having the choice of a large area, will, by the improvement of their homesteads, greatly enhance the value of adjoining lands, and make them more desirable. This is shown by the rapidly-increasing population of the older counties, although in many instances better lands can be had farther to the front. In the hope of a more general response than has proved to be the case, inquiries were sent out from this office to the various counties, and a summary of replies from eleven out of thirty-six counties is given. Ten counties report an average increase of 50 per cent. over 1877 in the number of acres under cultivation. The increase in quantity of wheat raised was 48 per cent., while the average yield per acre fell from 18.4 bushels in 1877 to 17.1 in 1878. It should be stated, however, that of the 10 counties reporting, 7 are located in the southeastern portion of the Territory (the older settled part), where the wheat crop was more seriously affected by the extreme heat and excessive rains of July, than was the case in the more northern portions, where the yield per acre and quality are believed to be fully up to that of 1877. A moderate estimate of the wheat crop of the Territory for the present year is 8,000,000 bushels. Corn: The average increase in quantity is 175 per cent. 50 to 75 bushels being estimated as the average product per acre. Seven counties report an average increase of 70 per cent. in quantity of barley, and a decreased yield per acre from 27.5 bushels to 26.2 as compared with 1877. Six counties report an average increase of 100 per cent. in quantity of rye, and an average yield of 23 bushels per acre as against 17 bushels in 1877. Eight counties report an aggregate product of 760,000 bushels of oats, an increase of 70 per cent. over 1877; the average yield per acre was 51.6 bushels. The aggregate population of 11 counties is 29,483, an increase over 1877 of 76.5 per cent. The per cent. of increase would be much larger did it include the newer counties and those unorganized. No mention is made here of the number of acres devoted exclusively to grazing because of insufficient statistics; but the number of cattle is known to be very large, and constantly increasing by natural accretion and driving in of new herds. Owing to the excellent herd law in operation throughout the Territory, farmers are saved the heavy and useless expense of fence building, an important item to the settler with limited capital. Seven new counties have been organized since my last report. The foregoing figures, imperfect as they are, will still serve to show the great advance Dakota is making in agriculture and population. THE BLACK HILLS. The development of the mineral and agricultural resources of this portion of the Territory has proceeded with astonishing rapidity. The population is rapidly crystallizing into orderly business communities, destined to add immensely to the material and social prosperity of the Territory. I am indebted to United States Deputy Mineral Surveyor Henry C. Rohleder, esq., of Deadwood, one of its oldest settlers, for the following statement of the characteristics and products of that section: "The general topographical feature or character of the country is mountainous, not that the hills rise to any great height above the creek or gulch levels, but that they in nearly all cases rise very abruptly, a fair average being about 40° from a vertical line. In most cases they are covered with a heavy growth of pine and spruce, the pine greatly predominating. While it cannot be said that the timber will in quality equal that of the locality of Wisconsin, Minnesota, or the Northwestern States, it still furnishes an excellent quality of lumber of all kinds and sizes. In character it resembles the pine of the extreme Eastern and Southern States. The bed rocks will generally be found to be either granite or slate, and both on the hills and in the gulches of the north and west is quite shallow,' but increases in depth to the south and east. "QUARTZ. "The character of the quartz of the country is that known as 'free milling,' being almost entirely free from the baser metals, refractory ores being so seldom met with that they are almost unknown; consequently, the expense of working is so light that it is rendered profitable to work ores of such low grade that in nearly if not all other mining countries they would be considered worthless. Probably a fair average estimate of the value of our ores would be about $12 per ton, yet instances of veins running as high as from $100 to $200 per ton are of almost daily occurrence. While the development of the mines thus far is comparatively light, yet enough has been done in that line to fully demonstrate the fact of the ledges being 'fissure-veins,' the quartz invariably increasing in value in proportion to the depth attained. "Not included in the above description are a class of mines known as 'cement-beds' or deposits, the gold-bearing rock being a conglomerate cement, quite as hard as the quartz, and of a uniform consistency. This cement is generally much richer in gold than the quartz. Many have claimed that the working of these deposits would soon exhaust them; such predictions as yet have in no case been verified, the reverse in many instances proving to be a fact, as the working of these beds to any extent has generally disclosed the gold-bearing vein, which has been entirely hidden from view by the cement itself. "The theory that the quartz that could be made to pay was confined to a very narrow and short strip of territory known as the 'belt' must have had its origin in the failure of many to realize their visionary dreams of fabulous wealth to be obtained without effort on their part. "Though it is but a very short time since many were found to advocate this theory, it has now become obsolete and a thing of the past, and the fact that the rich quartz is not confined to this immediate vicinity, but exists to the north, east, south, and west, and at distances as great as 25 miles, is daily being proven by the most reliable of all tests, that of actually working it through the mills. "SILVER. "Thus far the discoveries made in silver seem to be confined to the Bear Butte district, situated about 8 miles to the southeast, and Bald Mountain, about 6 miles to the southwest of Deadwood. This silver ore is of the two kinds known as 'dry rock' and 'galena.' Assays of these ores not unfrequently give as a result as high as 600 ounces per ton. The fact that the shipping of large quantities of these ores to both Omaha and Denver for reduction has yielded to the mine-owners a large profit on their shipments is evidence of the richness of our silver districts.' The fact that but a short time will now elapse before the silver mining will prove itself to be an industry equal to the gold-mining interests is one now fully admitted by all well-informed persons of this country. "PLACER. "This important branch of mining, while hardly second in importance to the quartz interest, is one of which reliable information or statistics is exceedingly difficult to obtain, as the fortunate discoverers use every means to keep their discoveries a secret, excepting, perhaps, their own personal friends, and also show a disposition to underestimate rather than overrate the gold yield of their claims. The most reliable information that can be gathered as to their past yield is from the banking firms of this city, who base their estimates upon the amount of dust passed through the banks. "None of this ground having as yet been worked out, while many claims on the above creeks have not been touched, makes it not unreasonable to expect an amount much greater than the above to be yielded before they are declared to be 'petered.' An industry that bids fair to become very important in this branch of mining is the hydraulic system employed on the hill-sides, a class of work that is yet in its infancy. The great number of hill-side as well as gulch claims that remain untouched warrants the assertion that for years to come the placer-mining interests will be one of the greatest importance. On January 1, 1877, the first stamp of the then only stamp mill (a 10-stamp mill) in this country was let full upon the quartz of the Black Hills. That the experiment proved an entire success is evidenced by the fact that mill after mill followed and was erected here, until to-day we have the ceaseless roar of 750 stamps in constant operation, each crushing on an average 14 tons of rock per diem. "With but the one 10-stamp mill at the beginning of the year 1877 January of 1878 shows a yield of nearly $4,000,000, and this during a period when dust' was the currency of the country, when many thousands of dollars, not included within the above estimates, changed hands in the way of trade, rendering it impossible to estimate the actual amount of gold produced. "With the increased facilities of this year for working the mines, it would naturally follow that the gold yield should be correspondingly increased. "When we consider that $400,000 is a very liberal estimate to place upon the machinery now in the Hills, and compare it with the results thus far obtained, the fact becomes patent to all that the Black Hills have ceased to be an experiment, and have proven that they are, if not the richest, one of the richest mining countries ever known. 66 COAL. "On the extreme western boundary of the Territory, divided by the line between Dakota and Wyoming, lie the coal fields. From the fact that but little has as yet been done on them for their development, not much can be said of them or their extent. But this much is known by actual test of comparatively large quantities of the coal in the furnaces of the mills, that all that is necessary to make it by far the most economical fuel that can be used here is some means of transportation more certain than the wagons now used. "VALLEYS. "Lying contiguous to our mines, and in some cases extending far among them, are many beautiful and well-watered valleys, which experiment has proven to be arable land, and capable of producing all kinds of vegetables and all the smaller cereals; as to its adaptability to the raising of corn nothing is known, as no experiments of note in that line have as yet been made. "While the crops of this year are pronounced equal to the more eastern counties, they have been produced without the aid of the irrigating ditch. The valleys are all claimed and settled, hardly an acre remaining unclaimed, and the amounts of money already expended by the ranchmen' in improvements of all kinds prove them to be what they claim they are, permanent and actual settlers, who only await the extension of the public surveys to enable them by a compliance with the laws to obtain titles to the properties they have already expended much time and money to improve." As to the necessity of extending the public surveys through the mining counties nothing need be said, as such necessity daily manifests itself in the annoying and complicating conflicts in the location of mining claims, caused by the very unreliable and only means that exist for determining the locus of such claims. I conclude with the following extracts taken from a letter written to this office by James B. Power, esq., general agent land department Northern Pacific Railroad Company, giving some valuable information in relation to the settlement of the lands owned by that company, and clearly showing the necessity for a large amount of surveys in Northern Dakota at the earliest possible moment: To the 30th of June, 1878, our company has sold of Dakota lands 1,292,655.81 acres. The average holdings are less than one section each. These sales have been about as follows: Some 45 townships in Cass County, only some 4 townships now vacant in that county; 20 townships in Traill County; 8 townships in Richland County; 20 townships in Barnes County; 10 townships in Stutsman County; 2 townships in Kidder County; 5 townships in Burleigh County. * * * "The demand for lands now is principally in the last four named counties, in each of which a large amount of new ground has been broken up this year, and in many instances we have lost valuable settlers by reason of the want of public surveys in these counties. The sales for the next year will be even greater (than 600,000 acres). The good crops of Northern Dakota, so far in advance of localities farther south, both in matter of quality and quantity, will add largely to the well-established reputation of the country, and we can reasonably expect an immigration much greater than that of last year. "Our company will have at the close of this season completed entire the examination of all the townships inside of the limits of the grant that have been subdivided by the government, and if the demand for land continues as it has in the past the field for selection will by the end of next year be entirely gone, unless a large number of townships are surveyed by the government next year. "To meet the probable wants of the people it is safe to estimate that there should be subdivided all the unsurveyed townships in Traill and Richland Counties, to the 40-mile limit in Ransom, all in Stutsman and Kidder, and in Burleigh County for at least 20 miles each side of the road." Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. J. A. WILLIAMSON, HENRY ESPERSEN, United States Surveyor General. Commissioner General Land Office, Washington, D. C. ESTIMATES. A.-Estimates of appropriations required for continuing the public surveys in Dakota: For salary of surveyor general and pay of clerks in his office, as per act of Congress, March 2, 1861, and for the incidental expenses of the office, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880. SURVEYS. For surveying standard lines.. For surveying township lines. For surveying and subdividing townships Total for surveys.. For salary of surveyor general.... For pay of clerks in his office For rent of office, fuel, books, stationery, and other incidental expenses UNITED STATES SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, $1,620 00 19, 000 00 105, 000 00 125, 620 00 2,000 00 9,500 00 2,700 00 HENRY ESPERSEN, United States Surveyor General. Yankton, Dak., July 22, 1878, |