THE BUREAU OF PENSIONS.

1. Paid for pensions, $160,895,054.

2. Returned to the Treasury $2,174,856.63 of the amount appro-
priated by Congress for the payment of pensions.

3. Returned to the Treasury $72,004.81 of the sum appropriated
for maintenance and expense of the pension system, including
salaries of special examiners.

4. Reduced the number of employees by 24 persons without the
necessity of dismissing any employee.

5. By the act of April 27, 1916, providing for the Army and Navy
Medal of Honor Roll, a special pension of $10 per month for life, pay-
able quarter yearly, in addition to any other pension under any exist-
ing or subsequent law, was granted to every person over 65 years of
age who was placed on said roll. Under this law there were entered
on the pension roll 351 names. The amount paid in 1917 on account
of this act was $41,582.

6. Under the first section of the act of September 8, 1916, the pen-
sions of 157,248 widows have been increased from $12 to $20 per
month. Under the second and third sections of said act 51,481 claims
have been filed, of which 11,811 were admitted and 5,445 rejected.
In the other claims filed under said act, calls have been made for testi-
mony and the claims are still pending.

7. Under the act of March 4, 1917, known as the Indian War sur-
vivors' act, 6,517 claims had been filed up to June 30, 1917.

8. Up to June 30, 1917, only 11 claims had been filed based on
service in the war of 1917, but they have materially increased at the
time of writing this report.

9. Convictions were obtained in 30 criminal cases of the 31 tried
during the year, because of violations of the pension laws.

THE PATENT OFFICE.

The total number of applications received for patent in 1916 was
70,303, and in 1917, 71,620, an increase of 1,317 over the prior year.
The total number of applications awaiting action on June 30, 1916,
was 16,559, and the number of applications awaiting action on June
30, 1917, was 16,058, a decrease of 501. The total number of patents
granted in 1916, 46,133, and the total number in 1917, 44,179, a de-
crease of 1,954.

The total receipts of the office were $2,317,519.72, and the total ex-
penditures for all purposes were $2,095,138.68, the net surplus of earn-
ings over expenditures being $222,381.04 for the year.

THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION.

1. Collected, tabulated, and summarized returns from 20,759 schools
and school systems throughout the United States.

2. Printed and circulated 422,063 copies of printed bulletins, re-
ports, and other documents, and approximately 1,000,000 copies of
printed circulars and duplicated letters.

3. Carried on extensive correspondence with school officers and
others, mainly in answer to specific questions of educational policy.
In all 137,805 letters were received at the bureau, an increase of more
than 17,000 over the previous year.

4. Made, at the request of State and local school authorities, 16
educational surveys, including: Colorado (administration and sup-
port); Arizona (entire State system); University of Nevada; Elyria,
Ohio; Falls and Walker Counties, Tex.

5. Completed and issued a comprehensive report covering the entire
field of Negro education, following a three-year field study of exist-
ing colored schools.

6. Cooperated with other Government agencies in the task of en-
listing schools and school officers in special war work, such as in-
creased food production and food conservation, and led in the move-
ment for maintaining school attendance during the war.

7. Completed investigations of rural-school supervision and rural-
teacher training in secondary schools.

8. Held three national conferences on rural education, three con-
ferences on industrial training, and two on home economics.

9. Introduced the bureau's plan of home gardening directed by the
schools into 100 cities. Supervised intensive home gardening by the
school in 8 cities in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

10. Mantained 68 schools for natives in Alaska with an enrollment
of 3,600.

THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

1. Concentrated its geologic force on investigations of oil fields,
published during the year 10 reports pointing out areas believed to
be favorable for testing with the drill, began the publication of 16
similar reports, and prepared for publication 11 others.

2. Continued the field examination of the oil-shales of Colorado
and Utah as a preparedness measure-these constituting the petro-
leum reserves of the Nation.

3. Began the intensive field study of deposits of "war minerals,"
such as manganese, pyrite, platinum, potash, antimony, and chromite.
4. Prepared for the War Department, with the cooperation of
several State surveys, 23 summary reports on underground waters
available for the use of large military camps, and at the request

of the War or Navy Departments made special investigations of local water supply.

5. Mobilized the topographic surveys to meet military needs by adopting early in March a program determined by the General Staff, thus postponing indefinitely the continuation of all topographic work in interior States, except the surveys of cantonment sites.

6. Contributed to the Engineer Officers Reserve Corps 61 topographic engineers, 7 hydrographic engineers, and 1 geologist, with other applications for commissions pending at the close of the fiscal year.

7. Furnished the Council of National Defense with manuscript statements on production, sources of supply, etc., of every mineral product of importance; and to serve the needs of committees under the council began the issue of monthly reports of petroleum production and weekly reports of coal production; and to meet similar needs also prepared for publication a new map of the United States showing the oil and gas fields and pipe lines, and State maps outlining the coal-mining districts.

8. Printed for the War Department 96 editions of maps needed for military use and for the Navy Department 906 editions of charts. 9. Published a bulletin on the use of the panoramic camera in topographic surveying, with a special chapter on the application of photogrammetry to aerial surveys.

10. Continued geologic investigations throughout the United States, examining mineral deposits of all kinds but specializing as stated above.

11. Continued topographic surveys throughout the United States until March, when military surveys only were conducted as a part of the program of national defense.

12. Continued stream gaging at 1,197 stations in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.

13. Classified 3,900,000 acres of public lands as to mineral character and 252,000 acres as to their value as power or public water

reserves.

14. Classified 13,133,851 acres in 14 States as nonirrigable for designation, action being thus concluded upon 8,868 petitions from intending entrymen.

15. Cooperated with the General Land Office by reporting on 5,462 cases other than enlarged-homestead petitions.

16. Published 203 scientific and economic reports, aggregating 17,255 printed pages.

17. Distributed to the public 607,526 topographic maps, a notable feature being the 20 per cent increase in sales of both geologic folios and topographic maps.

18. Collected statistics of production for more than 75 mineral products from 92,000 producers and continued in increased volume the special correspondence, bringing producers and purchasers together.

19. Conducted general correspondence with the public, largely in answer to inquiries for technical information, the total number of letters received showing an increase of 7 per cent and the letters sent of 30 per cent over the previous year.

THE RECLAMATION SERVICE.

1. Developed, stored, distributed, and delivered irrigation water. to over 1,000,000 acres of arid land in 13 States, or an area larger than the cultivated acreage of either Connecticut or New Hampshire at the census of 1910, and producing crops valued at nearly $35,000,000.

2. Operated irrigation works, including 40 reservoirs, with a total capacity of over 9,000,000 acre-feet; over 10,000 miles of canals, flumes, and tunnels; 81,000 structures, including dams, head gates, weirs, checks, and other irrigation devices.

3. Carried on construction work on 24 irrigation projects and added over 100,000 acres, or 3,000 farms, to the area under Government works for which irrigation water is available

4. Built 450 miles of canals, 150 miles of drains, 600 bridges, 560 culverts, 57 miles of pipe line, 37 miles of roads, 8,880 canal structures, and excavated 9,468,000 cubic yards of earth and rock.

5. Cooperated with other departments of the Government, with other bureaus of the Interior Department, with State governments, and with numerous local organizations in the furtherance of reclamation work and in the interests of the water users.

6. Aided several State legislatures, through the expert advice of the legal division of the service, in the enactment of irrigation-district laws.

7. Cooperated with 30,000 water users on the reclamation projects, not only in the delivery of water to them for their land but in the furtherance of better living conditions, by means of helpful suggestions wherever possible.

8. Issued the Reclamation Record, a monthly publication of the service, devoted to the interests of the settlers on the project's and containing numerous articles by experts of the service and of other bureaus of the Government and by the water users, dealing with matters especially adapted to the needs of the settlers.

9. Cooperated with the various water users' associations on the projects, chambers of commerce, boards of trade, and railroad and State immigration officials in securing competent settlers, and in so

far as is proper under the law assisted in disposing of excess lands held in private ownership on the project's.

10. Organized community storage houses on several of the projects to take care of perishable crops until market and transportation facilities are favorable for distribution.

11. Conducted a campaign of publicity on the projects which resulted in an increase of 200,000 acres in food crops, a large part of which was due to war propaganda. Stimulated farm operations for a larger increase in 1917. The Service by its own efforts prepared and assisted in the harvesting of crops from approximately 5,000 acres and extended aid with tractor plows and seed in preparing 10,000 acres more.

12. Prepared numerous press bulletins and gave frequent illustrated lectures dealing with the activities of the service.

13. Subscribed for $90,950 worth of the bonds of the first Liberty Loan of 1917 and $175,800 of the second.

14. Contributed over 250 employees as commissioned officers or enlisted men to the armed forces of the United States.

THE BUREAU OF MINES.

1. Cooperated with the Council of National Defense and with other Government bureaus in work necessary for the successful conduct of the war.

2. Investigated the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen and the oxidation of ammonia to nitric acid, for the purpose of aiding the Government to obtain a supply of nitrates for use in agriculture or the manufacture of explosives.

3. Investigated sulphur and pyrite supplies to ascertain the possibility of providing, from domestic sources, the sulphuric acid needed in many lines of industry, especially the manufacture of explosives and fertilizers.

4. Investigated the noxious gases used in warfare and developed masks to protect men exposed to such gases.

5. Investigated the use of smoke screens in warfare and the methods best suited for producing such screens.

6. Investigated methods for increasing available supplies of necessary minerals and metals hitherto largely imported, such as manganese, nickel, and potash.

7. Ascertained how losses in the treatment of quicksilver ores can be lessened and the production of quicksilver increased.

8. Trained more than 4,800 miners in mine rescue and first-aid methods. On June 30, 1917, the total number of miners trained by the bureau since its organization was 46,873.

9. Sent its mining engineers and trained rescue men to the scene of 57 mine accidents throughout the United States to make investiga