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Show E3POET OB TUB 00MM1SSIONEB OF INDIAN APFBZB8. 5 years the superintendent at Union Agency has been each year han-cially responsible for five or six million dollars, in the proper care of which only the qualities of accuracy and integrity are required. The disbursement of these funds necessarily took a large part of the time which he, as the executive oftieer of the Indian Service among the Five Civilized Tribes should have devoted to the broad questions of general management, to decisions of disputed cases, and to careful watching of the enormous business and human interests of these Indians. The mere manual labor of signing the immense number of checks and petty details connected with them took nearly half of his time. The special disbursing agent appointed this year will free the super-intendent of this unnecessary waste of time and energy in the future. This special agent is bonded in a sufficient amount to care for the fiscal affairs of not ody the Union Agency but of the educational work which has been heretofore managed by a separate officer. The superintendent in charge of the agency, as well as the supervising officials in care of education, have been relieved of a tremendous burden of detail and may now be, in fact as well as in name, the executive and administrative officers representing the Government in old Indian Territory. FARMINU. The Indian Service realizes that instruction in farming is an essential basic part of its present educational policy and is, there-fore, making use of every possible resource in order to promote farm-ing among the 1ndians Farmers are employed on reservations to teach the Indians how to farm according to the most improved mod-ern methods. Experimental farms have been established in different sections to discover the best crops for the Indians of the district, to improve the quality of the seed, and raise the standard of the prod-uct. The cooperation of the Department of Agriculture and the agricultural colleges and experiment stations of the various States has been solicited, and valuable assistance and advice have been procured from those sources in finding what class of cereals, plants, S i t s , berries, and other industries carried on by farmers were best adapted to the various Indian reservations. Instruction in agricul-ture is receiving new emphasis in the schools. The Indians are being encouraged to hold agricultural fairs where their stock and produce are exhibited. The standard of Indian live stock is being raised by cooperation with the Bureau of Animal Industry. A special examination was held by the Civil Service Commission on March 30, 1910, for the purpose of procuring candidates for appointment as expert farmer, and expert farmers were appointed at the following reservations: Blackfeet, Colville, Fort Apache, Fort 59554'-1~~ 1910-YOL 6 2 |