Summary of transactions of Pension Burean for three fiscal years ending June 20, 1867.

The number of pensioners of the several classes whose names were on the rolls at the close of each fiscal year, was during the last five years, as follows:

Bounty Land. During the year ending September 30, 1867, the number of applications for bounty land admitted was as follows:

Under the act of February 11, 1847, 4 warrants for 160 acres each, total, 640 acres; under the act of September 28, 1850, 3 warrants for 40 acres each, total, 120 acres; under the act of March 3, 1855, 887 warrants for 160 acres each, total, 141,920 acres; 39 warrants for 120 acres each, total, 4.680 acres; 19 warrants for 80 acres each, total, 1,520 acres; 2 warrants for 40 acres each, total, 80 acres. Whole number of warrants, 954. Whole number of acres, 148,960.

There were 39 duplicates issued during the same period, in lieu of lost warrants, and 32 warrants were canceled. Original applications to the number of 908 were received, and 3,114 suspended applications were re-examined.

3. BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.

Congress, by act of July 9, 1832, authorized the President to appoint a Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to have the direction and management of all matters arising out of Indian relations, subject to the revision of the Secretary of War, (now Secretary of the Interior).

The duties of the Bureau are administered by the Commissioner, Chief Clerk, and assistants at Washington, and by a number of superintendents, agents, farmers, school teachers, and other appointees in the Indian country. The estimated number of Indians is about three hundred thousand, spreading from Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean. Those east of the Mississippi, with few exceptions, are on reservations; so also are the tribes in Kansas north of the Arkansas, and those located between the western border of Arkansas and the country known as the "leased lands."

During the last few years the attention of the government has been drawn, in an unusual degree, to its relations with the Indians, on account of depredations which have been committed by them upon the white settlers, and the

obstructions to travel, and insecurity which their continued enmity has caused. New military posts have been established, forts garrisoned, and troops sent in pursuit of the hostile Indians.

Early in the spring of 1867, General Hancock, of the Department of the Missouri, started on an expedition among the hostile tribes of the south. He met several of the chiefs, but did not succeed in arranging terms of peace; an important Indian village on the Pawnee Fork was burned, and skirmishes took place between the troops and the Indians in which several of both parties were killed. The Indians were exasperated; depredations were continued; the work on the railroads was retarded; laborers and employees were murdered; and property and life were insecure in a large part of the territory occupied by the Indians.

On the 20th of July, 1867, an act was passed "to establish peace with certain hostile Indian tribes," which provided for the appointment of commissioners, with a view to the following objects:

1. To remove, if possible, the causes of war.

2. To secure, as far as practicable, our frontier settlements, and the safe building of the railroads looking to the Pacific.

3. To suggest, or inaugurate some plan for the civilization of those Indians. The commissioners selected were as follows: N. G. Taylor, president; J. B. Henderson; W. T. Sherman, lieutenant-general; W. S. Harney, brevet major-general; John B. Sanderson; Alfred H. Terry, brevet major-general; S. F. Tappan; C. C. Augur, brevet major-general.

These commissioners organized at St. Louis on the 6th of August, and set about obtaining interviews with the chiefs of the hostile tribes. Runners were employed to signify the pacific purposes of these commissioners to the Indians, and to endeavor to arrange a general council. In the mean time they visited various posts of the Military Division of the Missouri, taking evidence of the officers with regard to the conduct of the Indians and the causes of the war; they also issued orders through the military departments to the various superintendents and agents of Indian affairs, that appointments be made for a great council of the northern hostile tribes at Fort Laramie, on the 13th of September, and of the southern tribes at Fort Larned on the 13th of October.

The commissioners held conferences with several bands of Indians, both of the northern and southern tribes. Treaties of peace were signed with the Kiowas, Camanches, Apaches, and the southern Cheyennes and Arrapahoes, The commissioners presented a report in July, 1868, in which the treatment of the Indians is reviewed, the causes of the war pointed out, and important suggestions made regarding the future course of the government. They recommend the selection of two districts or territories, and the location of the Indians in them, as follows:

First. The territory bounded north by Kansas, east by Arkansas and Missouri, south by Texas, and west by the 100th or 101st meridian. In this territory, the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and other of the civilized tribes already reside. In process of time, others might gradually be brought in, and, in the course of a few years, we might safely calculate on concentrating there the following tribes, to wit:

Second.-The Second District might be located as follows, viz: The territory bounded north by the 46th parallel, east by the Missouri River, south by Nebraska, and west by the 104th meridian. If the hostile Sioux cannot be induced to remove from the Powder River, a hunting privilege may be extended to them for a time, while the nucleus of settlement may be forming on the Missouri, the White Earth or Cheyenne River. To prevent war, if insisted on by the Sioux, the western boundary might be extended to the 106th or even the 107th meridian for the present. The following tribes might, in a reasonable time, be concentrated on this reservation, viz:

It may be advisable to let the Winnebagoes, Omahas, Ottoes, Sante Sioux, and perhaps others remain where they are, and finally become incorporated with the citizens of Nebraska, as suggested in regard to the Kansas tribes.

4. PATENT OFFICE.

The Constitution, Art. 1, Sec. 8, confers upon Congress the power to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their writings and discoveries. The rights of the latter class are secured by letters patent issued from the Patent Office in accordance with acts of Congress. The office as now organized was established by act of July 4, 1836.

The building erected under the authority of that act is one of the most imposing in the city of Washington. It extends over two entire blocks, and is used for storing and preserving models as well as for offices for the Commissioner, clerks, and examiners.

During the year ending September 30, 1868, there were 20,112 applications for patents; 14,153 patents (including re-issues and designs) were issued; 1,692 applications were allowed, but patents were not issued thereon, by reason of the non-payment of the final fees; 3,789 caveats were filed; 180 applications for extension were received, and 133 extensions of patents were granted.

During the same period, the receipts were $696,786.00, and the expenditures, $696,957.00. An appropriation of $360,000 will be required for the balance of the fiscal year.

TABLE SHOWING THE BUSINESS OF THE OFFICE FOR THIRTY YEARS ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1867.

The foregoing table shows a rapid increase in the number of applications for patents, and in the number of patents issued. The number of applications in 1867, was 55 per cent. greater than in 1865; and 116 per cent. greater than in 1860.

The Commissioner in his report for 1867, says that great inconvenience has been experienced by the examiners for the want of sufficient room. Additional accommodations are also needed for the proper arrangement and preservation of the drawings of inventions.

The library of the Patent Office has vastly grown in importance within the last few years. It is not only needed and used as an absolute necessity by the examiners in the performance of their duties, but it is now much consulted by inventors and those engaged in their interest. It is not an uncommon thing for persons to come from distant parts of the United States to consult books which can only be found in the Patent Office. The collection is now one of the best technical libraries in the world.

*For year ending September 30, 1868.

The Department of Agriculture was established by an act of Congress, approved May 15, 1862. The act provides that the department shall be located at the seat of government of the United States, and that its designs and duties shall be to acquire and to diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with agriculture in the most general and comprehensive sense of that word, and to procure, propagate, and distribute among the people new and valuable seeds and plants.

The chief Executive officer is the "Commissioner of Agriculture," who holds his office by a tenure similar to that of other civil officers appointed by the President. The Commissioner is to acquire and preserve in his department all information concerning agriculture which he can obtain by means of books and correspondence, and by practical and scientific experiments, (accurate records of which experiments shall be kept in his office), by the collection of statistics, and by any other appropriate means within his power; to collect as he may be able new seeds and plants; to test, by cultivation, the value of such of them as may require such tests; to propagate such as may be worthy of propagation, and to distribute them among agriculturists. He annually makes a general report in writing of his acts to the President and to Congress, and he also makes special reports on particular subjects whenever required to do. so by the President or either house of Congress, or whenever he thinks the subject in his charge requires it. He directs and superintends the expenditure of all money appropriated by Congress to the department, and renders accounts thereof.

The chief clerk in the necessary absence of the Commissioner, or whenever the office becomes vacant, performs the duties of the office. The Commissioner under the provisions of Congress, appoints and employs chemists, botanists, entomologists, and other persons skilled in the natural sciences pertaining to agriculture.

The new building of the Department which was contracted for in August 1867, was so far completed that the offices of the Commissioner and his assistants were removed to it in the summer of 1868. This building, situated just west of the grounds of the Smithsonian Institution, is 171 feet in length, and 62 feet in width, with a projection at each end extending 6 feet beyond the central portion, and one on the south front for hall and staircase. In the basement, are the operating rooms of the chemical laboratory, folding