C.-Statement of the account of the appropriations for the salary of the surveyor general of Arizona, for clerks in his office, and for incidental expenses, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. D.-Statement of account of fund created by individual depositors for the survey of public lands in Arizona during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. DR. CR. E.-Statement of plats made in the surveyor general's office, Arizona, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. F.-Statement of number of miles surveyed in Arizona during fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. Name of deputy surveyor. Date of contract. C. Burton Foster. Oct. 11, 1876 90 27 70 M.chs. lks. 558 71 68 M. chs. lks. Theodore F. White and John L. Harris Theodore F. White and John L. Harris July 17, 1877 Sept. 20, 1877 24 00 00 168 78 11 601 22 54 M. chs. lks. 6 27 65 M. chs. lks. M. chs. lks. 123 67 87 503 03 20 55 78 53 Total surveyed to June 30, 1878 55 7853 G.-Statement of the surveys of mining and mill-site claims in Arizona during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. Nov. Nov. 30, 1877 Green Mountain 30, 1877 Green Mountain mill site. Nov. 30, 1877 Cadmus. do Nov. 30, 1877 Cadmus mill site. ..do Jan. 4-5, 1878 Cupel.. Mohave County.. Dec. 18, 1877 McCleond. Yavapai County Dec. 29, 1877 Tiger mill site .do 29, 1877 First and second south extension Tiger mill site.. ..do Agua Fria mill site. .do H.-List of lands surveyed in Arizona during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. Description. Meridian. Public lands. River lands. Unsurveyed lands. Township 18 north, range 2 west Township 5 south, range 15 east.. Township 8 south, range 21 east. Township 9 south, range 16 west Township 9 south, range 17 west Township 9 south, range 18 west 1,760.00 640. 00 I.-Estimates for the surveying service in Arizona for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880. UNITED STATES SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, Tucson, Ariz., June 21, 1878. SIR: In accordance with your circular, E, of date May 1, 1878, I herewith respectfully submit estimates for the surveying service in this district for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, viz: For survey of agricultural and timber lands For incidental expenses of office For salary of surveyor-general For clerks in his office To enable this office to execute duties imposed by proviso to appropriation act of July 15, 1870, as per instructions, regarding examination of titles to private land claims, viz: For safe, record and other books and necessaries... Total for private land claims Referring to these estimates, I would respectfully represent: Ten of the fifteen thousand dollars for the survey of public lands is regarded necessary for the survey of timber lands, to the end that citizens may procure necessary timber by purchase, and that the best interests of the government be easy of protection. When timber land can, as now provided by law, be purchased without actual residence in most undesirable mountain fastnesses, local public sentiment will approve strict enforcement of the law. Five thousand dollars ($5,000) is the lowest amount that will meet the urgent demand of settlers for survey of agricultural lands. The amounts estimated for execution of the law and instructions regarding private land claims ought to be appropriated. In the event that Congress should relieve this office of the duty now imposed upon it, as I still think it should do, then not a dollar appropriated in this behalf would be used. There are no arrears of office work to report—that is, no work now undone which can properly be classed as in arrears. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, N.-Report of the Surveyor General of Washington Territory. SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, WASHINGTON TERRITORY, SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith, in duplicate, a report of the surveying « operations in this district for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. Accompanying and forming a part of this report are the following tabular statements, viz: A. Statement showing the condition of contracts not closed at date of last annual report. B. Statement of contracts let for the survey of public lands in Washington Territory; the number of miles and acres in each township; the number of plats made, and the amount paid on contracts for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. C. Statement of special deposits for the survey of public lands in Washington Territory for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. D. Statement of appropriation for incidental expenses of office of surveyor general of Washington Territory for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. E. Statement of appropriation for salary of surveyor general of Washington Territory and clerks in his office for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. F. Estimated amount required for the surveying service in Washington Territory for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880. I also transmit herewith the annual map, showing the progress of surveys in Washington Territory to this date, and the changes in several county boundary lines. APPROPRIATIONS FOR SURVEYS, As heretofore, I would most respectfully call the attention of your department to the unwise policy pursued by Congress for the last three years in reducing the appropriations for public surveys so that the expenses necessary to execute the surveys bore so large a ratio to the appropriations made for that purpose. For the purpose of placing this more clearly before all whom it may concern, I beg leave to submit the following statement, taken from the records of this office since 1873, viz: Amount expended for surveys for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1873, $62,935, at an expense for office work and contingencies of $11,605, or nearly 184 cents for expending $1; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874, expended for surveys, $69,641, at an expense of $12,447, or about 172 cents for expending $1; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1875, expended for surveys, $63,850, at an expense of $9,900, or about 154 cents for expending $1; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876, expended for surveys, $38,449, at an expense of $9,800, about 25 cents for expending $1; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877, expended for surveys, $11,032, at an expense of $9,000, about 814 cents for expending $1; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, expended for surveys, $26,630, at an expense of $8,350, nearly 314 cents for expending $1. By comparing the fiscal years ending June 30, 1874 and 1877, which may be taken as the two extremes, it needs no argument to establish the fact that small appropriations for public surveys is, to say the least, very doubtful economy, and clearly proves that the fault of the present system, which has been charged as an expensive one, does not attach so much to the system as to those who have control of its financial affairs. GROWTH AND PROSPERITY OF THIS TERRITORY. Since my last annual report the agricultural growth of this Territory is unparalleled by any other year of its history. The extensive and inexhaustible wheat lands of Eastern Washington are being rapidly and successfully developed. The county assessor's returns from Walla Walla and Columbia Counties are all I have at hand at present. These show that in 1877 Walla Walla County had 28,625 acres of wheat, which yielded an average of 30 bushels per acre. This year the acreage is 46,580, and although the yield will be less per acre than last year, owing to the extreme drought, yet it will exceed 1,000,000 bushels. Columbia County this year has 28,337 acres in wheat, and 10,445 acres in other crops. Whitman County has a wheatproducing area equal to both the above-named counties, and has also a large area sown this year, but I am not in possession at this time of the exact amount. The increased acreage of crops in other counties show equally well according to the increase of population. RAILROADS. There are now over 200 miles of completed railroads in operation in this Territory, viz: The Northern Pacific Railroad from Kalama, on the Columbia River, to Takoma, on Puget Sound, 105 miles; the Puyallup Railroad, from New Tacoma to the Puyallup coal mines, 30 miles; the Cascades Railroad, connecting the navigable waters of the Columbia River above and below the cascades, 6 miles; and the following 3-foot narrow gauge railroads: The Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad form Seattle southeast, 20 miles; Olympia and Tenino Railroad, from Olympia to Tenino, connecting with the Northern Pacific Railroad at Tenino, 15 miles; and the Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad, from Wallula, on the Columbia River, to Walla Walla, 30 miles; all of which are doing a successful business. The Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad last year transported over its line of the agricultural products of Walla Walla and a portion of Columbia Counties 26,339 tons, and of return freight over 8,000 tons, consisting of merchandise, agricultural implements, &c. The Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad has been transporting 800 tons of coal daily, besides its other local business. IMMIGRATION. For the last two years, notwithstanding a disastrous Indian war has raged on our borders, immigration has rapidly poured into the Territory. Every steamer passing up the Columbia and Snake Rivers carried up hundreds of settlers in search of homes. The overland travel was suddenly interrupted this summer by the Indian war in Eastern Oregon and Southern Idaho, and thousands of immigrants have been either delayed in their destination or turned in other directions, yet under all these adverse circumstances, the population has more than doubled in several counties within the last year. COAL. Extensive and valuable deposits of coal are frequently discovered in various portions of Western Washington, sufficient to supply the whole Pacific Coast for all future time. As the market here for coal is limited at present, many of the newly discovered mines develop slowly; but with a railroad across the Cascade Mountains, connecting us with Eastern Washington, an extensive market would at once be opened for this desirable and cheap fuel in the sparsely timbered agricultural districts of that country. TIMBER LANDS. The passage of the recent act by Congress, providing for the sale of 160 acres of timber to each qualified purchaser, will prove of inestimable value to the farmers in Eastern Washington, where timber is generally located in the mountainous districts and remote from their homes. Heretofore but little call was made for the survey of these lands, for the reason that as soon as surveyed they were taken up by transient land speculators, under the preemption act, and held at such high figures that the average farmer could not afford to purchase them, and when unsurveyed, necessity forced nearly all to become depredators on the public lands. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. J. A. WILLIAMSON, W. MCMICKEN, Surveyor General of Washington Territory. Commissioner General Land Office, Washington, D. C. 23 I |