The purpose is to push actively the policy of reserving the Indian schools for children who are not provided with adequate free schools facilities and to pay tuition for those who have access to public schools but whose parents are wards of the Government.

Under this policy it was practicable within the year to discontinue 10 boarding schools and a number of day schools, which will result in better schooling for the more needy, ample care for those who attended the abolished schools, and a more economical administration.

Owing to abnormal costs of labor and material, construction of new school plants was impeded during the year and projects of this nature were conducted in open market at a saving over contract work of approximately 40 per cent.

Indian fairs and Indian exhibits at county and State fairs are adjunctively growing features of education. Fostered by certificates of merit and prizes, much is thus learned industrially, and the "better baby show," now a prominent feature, is a distinct impetus to better health.

Employment of young men and women in various lines of commercial, agricultural, and mechanical work was greatly extended, and now supplements the schools with practical training of importance that foretells economic stability and progress among the Indians.

Health.-Except for the epidemic of influenza and the sorrows of that severe visitation the health record of the Indians for the past year could be written as normal, notwithstanding the impairment of the service by the heavy loss of both physicians and nurses in response to war demands. But the great pandemic was on the whole efficiently resisted by great personal effort and sacrifice on the part of the field personnel generally. Many localities were handled with splendid results, and in one of the largest schools not a single case developed among 600 pupils and employees.

The health problems among the Indians are essentially the same as in rural communities and school assemblies. The service emphasizes those things which prevent disease and aims to secure better housing, better water supplies, better bodily nutrition, the practice of hygiene, sanitation, and well-ordered living. Constant effort is made to promote Indian industry in general and particularly farming. Agriculture and thrift are regarded as the pillars of a health arch of which sanitary education is the keystone. Work and prosperity lead to health and happiness.

With the resumption of normal conditions, definite health plans will be carried forward under thorough organization in districts requiring special attention.

Suppression of the liquor traffic. The liquor forces continue to violate the law wherever it seems possible to acquire huge profits. The year has been an active one, notwithstanding the war restrictions

against the manufacture and sale of liquor. There were 1,516 new cases instituted during the year, 2,135 cases disposed of, 33,924 gallons of various kinds of intoxicants seized and destroyed, and 112 automobiles engaged in the illegal traffic libeled and sold for $42,869. The year's operations covered 27 different States, and include prosecutions for violations of State, Federal, and municipal laws.

An investigation of complaints that Indian Service officers were destroying unfermented grape juice in large quantities in Minnesota disclosed that many carloads of California grapes were being shipped into the territory covered by the Indian treaty containing prohibition against intoxicating liquors, but that they were not being used for making the ordinary form of "grape juice." Thousands of gallons were destroyed, but no action was taken against any person using grapes for ordinary unfermented grape juice.

The value of prohibition to the La Pointe Indians appears in information indicating that from the date it was effective, July 1, 1918, the total arrests for the next 6 months in the city of Ashland, Wis., were 236, as against 1,366 for the last six months of the wet period.

Farming and stock raising.-Upon the assumption that postwar conditions would require increased production to satisfy foreign and domestic demands, with as little soaring of prices as possible, the Indian field service was urged early to renew and stimulate for greater results the previous year's campaign. Emphasis was given to early preparation for the seedtime; the necessity for garden culture, the raising, drying, and canning of vegetables and fruits for home consumption as a measure of releasing other products for market, and especially to the extension of cultivated lands by the Indians. Responsive reports were encouraging from nearly every quarter, indicating that the high standard of war-period production would be maintained and in many localities surpassed.

Barring such unforeseen visitations as hailstorms, drought, and grasshoppers the crop results of the past year will be highly satisfactory throughout the Indian country. A most encouraging element is the greater use of agricultural machinery and a tendency to adopt modern improved methods of tillage.

In cotton-producing sections high-grade Pima seed has been furnished Indian farmers, and their crops are comparing well with those of the best white farmers.

The Indians have made continued progress in the live-stock industry even against the occurrence of successive droughts in some sections. They are showing special interest in the improvement of breeds by the purchase of first-class sires.

In addition to the natural increase there were purchased during the year approximately 3,200 cows and heifers and 450 steers. The

suppression of contagious diseases has progressed satisfactorily, and on several reservations in the Northwest, ranges are reported to be free from infected animals.

Irrigation. Much allotted land of minors and adults who, from age or other disabilities, can not cultivate their entire holdings, is leased on favorable terms to white farmers, and production thus increased with profit to all concerned.

Advanced cost of labor and material for irrigation construction has been measurably offset by the greater use of machinery, such as dredges, dragline excavators, ditch cleaners, etc., thus also overcoming labor scarcity. The Yakima, Wash., project has been extended, and with new land under cultivation the gross yield was approximately $9,000,000. The Fort Hall, Idaho, Reservation will surpass previous years in products by irrigation, and in Montana the Crow lands under ditch tided that country over great drought severities.

The Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana is an example of progressive irrigation methods by the Indians who do practically all of the farming.

Additional wells have been installed in the Papago country, and, with the operation of the old ones, further increases the stockraising industry, which is the chief means of support.

The water problem of the Navajo and Hopi in Arizona and New Mexico is slowly yielding to solution by the sinking of wells to supply drinking water for herds in areas of pasture that would otherwise be wasted. There are now 1,000,000 sheep and goats on the reservation of these Indians, and with sufficient funds, thousands of acres, affording reasonably good forage, can be utilized to increase their herds. Aid has been extended to the Pueblo of New Mexico, and sanitation in their villages has been improved in some instances by the installation of domestic water supply, drainage, and sewer systems.

Allotment, sale, and leasing of land.-On the Gila River Reservation in Arizona 1,213 allotments of irrigable and nonirrigable land were made during the year, also 270 allotments, of 80 acres each, were made on the Umatilla Reservation, Oreg., and approximately 1,000 reallotments were made, under provision of law, on various reservations.

Allotments were made to 16 Indians in various national forests, and a total of 315 allotments, comprising 46,207 acres, were made on the public domain.

During the year 907 pieces of Indian land, covering 115,367 acres were sold for $2,803,232, an average of $25.65 per acre, the highest average price ever received from like sales.

The leasing of agricultural land in excess of the amount the Indians can cultivate was continued with good results, particularly on

the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah, where the leasing of about 70,000 acres of irrigable allotted land was practically completed as a measure of saving the Indians' water rights which, under the law, would have been forfeited by the close of the year in default of making beneficial use of the water.

The Five Civilized Tribes.-To date of June 30, 1919, 3,578,934.38 acres of tribal land had been sold for $20,376,096.27, being $4,536,108.67 more than the appraised value. The estimated total value of unsold tribal property of the several tribes is as follows:

Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations----

Creek Nation____

Seminole Nation__

$17,689, 720 172, 200 38, 900

Only one tract of 10 acres of the Cherokee Nation remains unsold. During the year a competency commission visited the Creek Tribe at their homes to determine who are capable of handling for themselves all business transactions affecting their allotted lands. Restrictions on 57,000 acres of allotted land were removed.

Money was disbursed to individual Indians last year from land sales, equalization, royalties, and per capita payments amounting to $7,812,331.44, an increase of more than three millions, and houses, barns, improvements, equipments, and miscellaneous articles were constructed and purchased at a total cost of $1,110,618.53. The Indian farmers responded beyond expectations to the emphasis laid upon agriculture and stock raising, and the Five Tribes scored a splendid record in the purchase of Liberty bonds, war savings stamps, and the number, estimated at 4,000, who were in military and naval service.

The Indian exhibit. The Indian exhibit at the Interior Department Exposition held in May, 1919, consisted of enlarged photographs showing the educational and industrial progress of the Indians; how they helped to win the war by service in the Army and Navy, the purchase of Liberty bonds, Red Cross work, and food production. Specimens of native Indian handicraft, such as beadwork, hand-embroidered garments, artistic designs in laces and bags, and various similar articles made by Indian pupils, were shown; also canned and preserved fruits and vegetables, and many interesting products of the domestic science and art classes and the mechanic art shops of the Indian schools.

Forestry and road work.-The larger timber sales of the year were the eastern division unit, on the Tulalip Reservation, consisting of 65,000,000 feet; the Omak unit of 25,000,000 feet, on the Colville Reservation; the Stinking Lake unit, 25,000,000, on the Jicarilla Reservation; and the Northern Spring Creek unit, of 26,000,000, on the Klamath Reservation. A sale of 6,000,000 feet, known as the Big Bend unit, on the Klamath, was made late in the year, and the

Camas Creek unit, of 24,000,000 feet, on the Flathead Reservation, was advertised for the receipt of bids on July 15, 1919. The Apache Lumber Co. has been engaged in erecting a large mill within the area purchased by it on the Fort Apache Reservation in 1917. Approximately 30,000,000 feet have been eut under the contract of the International Lumber Co. on the Red Lake Reservation. A more intelligent and comprehensive system of laying out and maintaining highways on the reservations is being developed under the congressional appropriation available for this purpose, and as the Indians are more and more appreciating these essentials of modern economical development greater progress is anticipated. Indian labor is largely employed for road work, with the exception of the necessary experienced supervision, for which white foremen must be used.

Probate work. Under congressional limitation of probate attorneys to matters affecting restricted allottees or their heirs, individual cases are receiving more effective attention. This work in Oklahoma, which for part of the year was retarded as a result of diminished. service caused by the war, is proceeding normally.

Steps will be taken to test the constitutionality of a recent act of the Oklahoma Legislature changing the rules of probate procedure, which previously as adopted by the State supreme court had been uniform, to a system authorizing each county judge to promulgate rules governing the procedure in his court. The new plan, permitting each of 40 counties to have a different set of rules, if sustained, will severely cripple the bureau's probate organization.

During the year attorneys appeared in 7,024 regular cases, instituted 270 civil actions, involving $268,638, and finally determined 232 civil actions, besides attending to a large volume of other probate work.

In the probating of estates of deceased Indians outside the Five Civilized Tribes, 2,414 cases were finally disposed of. One thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven of these related to estates under trust patents, 176 to restricted-fee patents, 51 to personal property, and 97 to inherited interests. One hundred and eighteen will cases were received, 75 of which received action. Fifteen examiners of inheritance held hearings in 26 reservations. Miscellaneous cases pertaining to probate work to the number of 2,914 were also disposed of.

Mineral interests.-During the year oil leases on certain lands of the Osage Indians aggregating 95,337 acres were sold for a bonus consideration of $10,299,900, in addition to royalties, an average of about $101 an acre. Also gas leases on 511,488 acres were sold for a bonus of $1,173,920.48.

On Osage lands at the close of the year there were 4,442 producing oil wells, 468 producing gas wells, and 124 wells being drilled. The year's gross production of oil was 12,138,086 barrels, of which the