LEGISLATURE, 1857. HOUSE DOO [No. 7.] COMMUNICATION from the Commissioner of the State Land Office, relative to Swamp Lands. Statement of lands in the several counties named below, for which Patents have been issued to the State of Michigan under an act of Congress of the 28th September, 1850: Houghton, Hillsdale, Huron, 50 00 Ingham, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lenawee, St. Clair,. Sanilac, Saginaw, Van Buren,. Wayne,.. Washtenaw, 14,747.15 $51,414 92 $67,281 69 $118,706 61 The amount to the credit of the Swamp Land Interest Fund in the Treasury November 29, 1856, as appears from the State Treasurer's Annual Report, is $14,745 24. AN ACT to enable the State of Arkansas and other States, to reclaim the "Swamp Lands" within their limits. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled; That to enable the State of Arkansas to construct the necessary levees and drains, to reclaim the swamp and overflowed lands therein, the whole of those swamp and overflowed lands made unfit thereby for cultivation, which shall remain unsold at the passage of this act, shall be and the same are hereby granted to said State. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior, as soon as may be practicable after the passage of this act, to make out an accurate list and plats of the lands described as aforesaid, and transmit the same to the Governor of the State of Arkansas; and at the request of said Governor, cause a patent to be issued to the State therefor, and on that patent the fee simple to said lands shall vest in the said State of Arkansas, subject to the disposal of the Legislature thereof; Provided however, that the proceeds of said lands, whether from sale or by direct appropriation in kind, shall be applied exclusively, as far as necessary, to the purpose of reclaiming said lands, by means of the levees and drains aforesaid. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That in making out a list and Flats of the land aforesaid, all legal sub-divisions, the greater part of which is "wet and unfit for cultivation," shall be included in said list and plats; but when the greater part of a sub-division is not of that character, the whole of it shall be excluded therefrom. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the provisions of this act be extended to, and their benefits be conferred upon each of the other States of the Union, in which such swamp and overflowed lands, known and designated as aforesaid, may be situated. Approved September 28th, 1850. [ No. 8. ] MEMORIAL of the State Board of Education upon the subject of an Agricultural College. To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Michigan: By an act of the Legislature of this State entitled "an act for the establishment of a State Agricultural School," approved February 12th, 1855, "twenty-two sections of Salt Spring Lands, or the money arising from the sale thereof," were appropriated for the purchase of land for an experimental farm, upon which the said school should be located; as also "for the erection of buildings, the purchase of furniture, apparatus, library and implements, payment of professors and teachers, and such other necessary expenses to be incurred in the establishment and successful operation of said School." By the act aforesaid, the President and Executive Committee of the Michigan State Agricultural Society were authorized, under certain restrictions, to make the selection of said farm, which was done sometime in the month of June, A. D. 1855, and thereupon by the provision of the said act, it became the duty of the State Board of Education to cause to be erected the necessary buildings for the said School, and to make such arrangements and improvements as the end and object of the plan might in their judgment demand. |
