LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL OFFICE OF THE SURVEYOR-GENERAL AND EX OFFICIO STATE LAND REGISTER, To the Honorable T. L. ODDIE, Governor of the State of Nevada. SIR: In conformity with an Act of the Legislature, approved February 17, 1893, entitled "An Act relating to public reports and repealing all other Acts in relation thereto, I have the honor to submit the accompanying report of the transactions of the State Land Office for the years 1909 and 1910, showing the status of the several land grants to the State by the General Government, the selections under those grants that have been approved to the State, the number of acres applied for, the number of contracts entered into for the purchase of those lands, the number of patents issued, and the number of acres which reverted to the State from non-compliance with the laws, the receipts and expenditures of the office, a compilation of statistics from the reports of County Assessors, and various other matters deemed to be of more or less interest to the general public. Very respectfully, C. L. DEADY, Surveyor-General and Ex Officio State Land Register. LAND OFFICE REPORT ORGANIZATION OF NEVADA TERRITORY AND STATE By an Act of Congress, approved March 2, 1861, the Territory of Nevada was organized, comprising a portion of the domain acquired from Mexico at the close of the Mexican War and contained all that part of the Territory of Utah, lying west of the 115th meridian and north of the 37th parallel of latitude. The Act authorizing the Territory was approved by President James Buchanan, and as President Lincoln was sworn in two days later, he appointed James W. Nye first Governor of the Territory. Congress appropriated $20,000 in currency, worth about $15,000 on this Coast, for the support of the Territorial Government and Legislature. The first session of the Territorial Legislature was convened at Carson City, October 1, 1861, and ended on November 29th following. By an election held in 1863, at which 8,162 votes were cast, the people decided in favor of a state government and elected delegates to a convention to be held in Carson City for the purpose of framing a constitution. The Constitution so framed was rejected at an election held January 19, 1864. In June of the same year a second election was held, when the present Constitution was adopted, and on October 31, 1864, Nevada was admitted into the Union as a sovereign State by the proclamation of President Lincoln. The first census of the State was taken in 1870, which showed the population to be 42,491; at the next census of 1880, 62,266, which was decreased to 45,761 in 1890, and a further decrease to 42,335 in 1900. The result of the last census taken this year shows the population of the State to be 81,875. It has been claimed that, had a census of the State been taken in 1906 or 1907, it would have shown a population of 130,000, as it was then estimated that the population of Goldfield alone was 30,000. BOUNDARIES, AREAS, AND POPULATION The Act of Congress relating to the boundaries of the State of Nevada, approved May 5, 1866, defines the boundaries of the State as follows: Beginning at the northwest corner of Utah and the southern boundary of Idaho, at the intersection of the thirty-seventh degree of longitude west from Washington, and in latitude forty-two degrees north, and running thence west along the southern boundary of Idaho and Oregon to longitude forty-three degrees west from Washington; thence south along the eastern boundary of California to latitude thirty-nine degrees north, in the southeastern part of Lake Tahoe; thence southeasterly along the California line to the Colorado River, in latitude thirty-five degrees north; thence north and easterly along the center of the Colorado River to the thirty-seventh degree of longitude west from Washington, thence north along the western line of Utah to the place of beginning. Several surveys have been made of the western boundary line extending from the Oregon state line to latitude thirty-nine degrees north, in the southeastern part of Lake Tahoe, and by each survey a slice was carved from Nevada until the present state line lies about 295 chains east at the Oregon state line and 55 chains east at the northern shore of Lake Tahoe, comprising an area lost to Nevada of 418 square miles or 267,520 acres. There have been, also, several surveys of the oblique line on the southwest boundary of the State, of which the Von Schmidt survey, made in 1873, was the established line until the new line was run in 1900 by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. This survey was adopted by the Legislature of this State in 1903, and by which Nevada made a net gain of 256 square miles or 163,840 acres. Owing to the barren character of the country traversed, the change of area does not mean a material gain of taxable wealth to the State in arable land. As to the value of mineral wealth involved, that will depend upon future discoveries; at the present there are no indications of important changes except in the Stewart and Pahrump Valleys. The latest compilation made in the United States Land Office as reported to the Commissioner of the General Land Office at Washington, D. C., for the fiscal year ending July 1, 1910, gives the area of Nevada as 109,512 square miles or 70,087,863 acres, of which 462,612 acres are water surface. The following table shows the area by counties, and population according to the census of 1910, together with the assessed valuation. Nevada occupies an elevated plateau in the northwestern portion of the Great Basin, bounded on the west by the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and on the east by the Wasatch Range and the Salt Lake Basin. It has an altitude above sea-level of from 800 feet, at its southeastern boundary on the Colorado River, to nearly 7,000 feet at its northern boundary, averaging about 4,000 feet. It is traversed in a northerly and southerly direction by high parallel ranges of mountains, some attaining to a height of nearly 12,000 feet above sea-level. These are separated by valleys varying in width from five to twentyfive miles. Some of the valleys are broad depressions or sinks, which, during wet seasons, are partially overrun by water and form shallow lakes. During the summer season these become dry and seem to be alkali flats and desert wastes, in some of which are often found vast deposits of salt, borax, niter, soda and other minerals in combination with magnesia, limestone, etc., thereby rendering these barren and desert wastes valuable and a source of large revenue to those engaged in the manufacture and utilization of them for the arts and commerce of the world. The sagebrush covers nearly the entire State, and rich bunch-grass and white sage are found on the mountains, affording excellent pasturage for all kinds of stock. MOUNTAINS The mountains contain timber, such as pine, piñon, juniper, mahogany, and cedar of a stunted growth in the interior, while the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the western boundary of the State at one time contained heavy forests of pine, tamarack and cedar, but now denuded by the woodman's ax for commercial purposes. Granite, slate, sienite, quartzite, limestone and prophyry constitute the general formation of these mountains, where rich veins of ore of nearly every precious metal known to commerce are to be found. Deep ravines or cañons are cut into them, dividing their slopes into ridges, some of which are several thousand feet above the cañons separating them, and usually at right angles with their general course. Many of these ravines which cut into their slopes afford abundance of water and excellent sites for storage reservoirs for irrigation purposes. The general trend of the mountain ranges is north and south, and sometimes these ridges run for a hundred miles or more without any material change in their course, with low passes crossing them at convenient intervals that are favorable for the construction of wagon, automobile and railroads. THE SOIL AND ITS PRODUCTIONS The best arable lands are the sage lands. Sagebrush grows almost everywhere, from the lowest valleys to the mountain tops of the interior portions of the State. The quality of the soil is indicated by the size and thriftiness of the sagebrush; the larger, of course, indicating a rich, deep soil, containing more than an ordinary amount of moisture. A short, dwarfed growth indicates a thinner soil, with less moisture. Where thrifty sagebrush grows, and the natural moisture is sufficient, grain can be grown without irrigation, and water can be found by digging, at no great depth below the surface. Greasewood brush indicates a soil impregnated to a greater or less degree with alkali, and is often found growing thriftily where the ground is covered and white with alkali. Greasewood lands usually indicate a deep, rich soil, and are productive where there is a moderate amount of alkali. All that is needed to make it so is a sufficient amount of moisture, which, if not found to exist naturally, must be supplied by irrigation; and, as a rule, it may be said that all sagebrush lands, to be productive, require to be irrigated, thus producing all the cereals, fruits and vegetables adapted to this latitude, east of the Rocky Mountains, which can be raised in Nevada in abundance and in superior perfection. The prevailing opinion that the desert lands of Nevada are productive of nothing useful to mankind is rapidly becoming discredited. The experience of twenty-five or thirty years has proven that not only a much greater area of the public domain in Nevada is susceptible of |