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Show COMMISSIONER INDIAN AFFAIRS. 39 tions existing a year ago, and with the authority of Congress above referred to for certain changes continued progress is expected. FORESTRY. In January of the present year the office began a campaign for the improvement of housing conditions among the Indians. It is the purpose to speedily remedy the deplorable conditions which exist on many reservations and to afford every encouragement to the construction of sanitary homes. The mills at the Klamath and Jicarilla Agencies, which were burned near the close of the fiscal year 1913, have been rebuilt. Several new mills have been purchased and installed, namely, two on Klamath, one on Nett Lake, one on Pine Ridge, one on Flathead, one on Spokane, and one on Mescalero. Extensive repairs have been made to agency mills on Red Lake, Me-nominee, and Fort Apache. There are now over 40 agency mills in operation and about the same number of private mills located upon Indian lands. On many reservations a new interest in house building has been aroused among the Indians. The superintendents reported 222 forest fires during the calendar year ending December 31, 1913. The amount of timber damaged was estimated at 3,934,450 feet board measure. The total area burned over was 161,556 acres and the damage to both timber and forage was estimated to be $34,795.75. Exclusive of the salaries of regular forestry officers, who assist in fighting forest fires in connection with their other duties, the cost of extinguishing fires was $3,463.92. Early in September, 1913, about 1,275,000 acres of timberland in the Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma, were offered for sale at public auction. Very general interest was manifested in this sale and 1,535 separate tracts, comprising 306,286 acres, were sold in January, 1914, for $1,460,244.85. This total was $162,557.37 in excess of the mini-mum price which had been placed upon the tracts which were sold. The lands which were not sold consisting of approximately 968,000 acres will be again offered at public auction in November, 1914. At the former sale, agricultural lands were offered in tracts not exceed-ing 160 acres and no one person or corporation was permitted to pur-chase more than one quarter section of such lands; all other lands were offered in tracts not exceeding 640 acres. In the sale of Novem-ber, 1914, all lands will be offered in 160-acre tracts and the limit of 160 acres of agricultural land will be maintained, but no limit will be placed upon the amount of grazing or timber lands which may be arquired by one person, lirm, or corporation. One small sale of timber has been made on the Tulalip Reserva-tion, and about 290,000,000 feet board measure have been offered for sale under sealed bids to be opened August 15, 1914. Minimum prices have been set as follows: Cedar, $3.50; Douglas fir, white pine, |