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subjects to be considered are amendments to the "Code," which has caused very general dissatisfaction, the question of irrigation, the mining laws, and the State lands. There is no matter of greater or more immediate importance to the State of Colorado than that of irrigation. Very little can be raised within the limits of the State without it. Circumstances are such as to render agriculture peculiarly profitable there. The mines continue to develop with increasing richness and rapidity, and thereby large numbers of active and enterprising persons are attracted to become settlers. Works for the treatment of ores are needed, and the number of consumers will increase correspondingly. Thus the farmer will soon have a market at his own door.

The crop of grain of 1878 has for the first time been sufficient for home consumption. The only lands of the State that can be irrigated by the means at the command of single individuals, or of a combination of farmers, are those in the valleys of the various streams. But those lands have all been appropriated. Hence the development of the agricultural resources of the State has reached a limit which it can not pass without the aid of organized capital. The extensive area of now arid uplands that is of no value except for the feeding of cattle and of sheep can, by irrigation, be made wonderfully productive in all the cereals, and thus be rendered the source of limitless wealth. The only irrigating enterprises of any extent that have ever been undertaken and carried out in northern Colorado have been that of the Greeley colony, and the one prosecuted by the Colorado Central Railroad men in Larimer County. The result of the former has been the regular annual production of value sufficient for the support of a flourishing and growing city of two or three thousand inhabitants. The latter was completed in the fall of the year, and sufficient time has not elapsed to show its advantages. It has, however, already resulted in selling several thousand acres of railroad land. The increase in the value of unproductive land by irrigating ditches is estimated at five dollars per acre. A canal a hundred miles long, with the necessary lateral branches, would carry the water, which is abundant, five miles on each side, and irrigate 640,000 acres.

A State Convention to consider this subject of irrigation assembled at Denver on December 5th. The attendance was large, and the sessions continued through three days. The result of its deliberations was expressed in the following memorial to the State Legis

lature:

To the Honorable the General Assembly of the State of Colorado.

GENTLEMEN: Your memorialists in convention assembled, to take into consideration the subject of irrigation, one of so much importance to the whole people of Colorado, would respectfully represent

That said convention met, in pursuance to a general call issued through the press, at the city of Den

ver, on December 5, 1878, and continued in session for three days.

viz.: Hon. L. C. Mead, President; R. O. Tenney, That the regularly elected officers were as follows, Vice-President; and I. L. Bailey, Secretary.

That the measures adopted were carefully considered and thoroughly discussed, and are presented as expressing the deliberate convictions of your memorialists.

That the right to the use of water for irrigation, and its proper and equitable distribution, is one of the most important subjects that can occupy the time and attention of your honorable body.

That the present and future welfare of our agricultural interests depends largely upon the satisfactory adjustment of the many intricate questions regarding the priority of right to the use of water, the proper settlement of which increases in importance with the increase of our population.

That the following resolutions embody the sentiments of said convention, and your memorialists would respectfully request your careful consideration and adoption of the same in the enactment of laws upon irrigation:

of Agriculture have included among his duties Resolved, That the President of the State Board

those of Commissioner of Irrigation, and that the Secretary of said Board be required to compile and preserve statistics in regard to irrigation in this State.

irrigation districts, according to the natural courses Resolved, That the State should be divided into of the streams, and that commissioners bo appointed for the several districts.

Resolved, That measures should be taken for ascertaining and perpetuating the priority of the right of ditches, individuals, and farms to the use or water in each irrigation district, and also to measure the capacity of the natural streams in the State.

Resolved, That a commissioner or commissioners for each of the several water districts be appointed by the County Commissioners, one from cach county in which the water district is situated; and that, in case of a tio on a question of disagreement, the District Commissioners shall choose another disinterested person to act as one of their number.

Resolved, That it should be the duty of the District Commissioners to collect and place on file, in the offices of the County Clerks and Recorders of their respective counties within their districts, all data respecting the volume of water in the natural streams within their districts as far as ascertained from time to time, also the date of construction, the date of all enlargements, the capacity at time of construction, of each ditch at the time they enter upon their duthe capacity of the enlargements, and the capacity ties. Also, to divide the water among the ditches, individuals, and farms respectively in accordance with the prior rights as ascertained by these data, and by such action as the law may direct.

Resolved, That the Commissioners should be empowered, in the discharge of their duties, to enter upon the premises through which ditches and streams run, to call for persons and papers, to administer oaths and take testimony, and their decision in regard to the use of water for the time being shall be final; but any parties who may deem themselves aggrieved may appeal from the decision of the Commissioners to the District Court.

od adopted for measuring the water entering the

Resolved, That there should be some uniform meth

different ditches.

Resolved, That there is urgent need for legislation in regard to simplifying the method of obtaining the right of way for irrigating ditches.

Resolved, That the most stringent and efficient laws should be enacted to prevent the pollution of our streams and ditches, to the end that the water shall remain pure and fit for household uses.

Resolved, That the subject of reservoirs and the

storage of water when it is abundant, for use in seasons of scarcity, is one of very great importance, and should be encouraged and protected by careful legislation.

The mining interests of the State have been greatly developed within a short time. Colorado is now the third State of the Union in gold and silver production. The yield of 1878 is estimated at $10,000,000. The mines gave a much larger production and higher percentage in 1877 than in any previous year. The value of gold and silver exported in that year, together with a small amount of lead and copper, was $7,696,771.60. As compared with

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$3,947,379 33

$7,865,288 88

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As during the two preceding years, Colorado now ranks next after Nevada and California in the production of gold and silver, leading Utah nearly a million dollars in those metals. Every county or section shows an increase over any former period except Summit, which did better in 1876, and that county and Lake in the earlier years of Colorado, when their gulches were producing bountifully in gold. The combined product of gold, silver, and lead from these counties would, it was estimated, foot up a larger sum total during the year 1878 than was ever obtained before. Boulder County has been credited with a larger product for 1875 than for either succeeding year, but it is said that the figures were above the actual output. The yield for each county or section of Colorado for 1875, 1876, and 1877 is given as follows, reduced to coin or gold value:

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$250,400 00 $98,796 64 been inaugurated, supplied with many miles of ditches and flumes, and with Little Giant hydraulics. The figures which embrace all the returns of any importance of gold dust from the streams and gulches of Summit County represent the amount at $150,000. The total expense of getting out this amount, exclusive of permanent improvements, is esti mated at only 40 per cent., leaving 60 per cent. of the gross receipts as net gain. The average yield per cubic yard of placer ground is given at 25 cents.

More coal was mined and sold in 1877 than in any previous year, and possibly double the usual quantity. The estimates of the amount of the total output vary considerably. It is safe to say that about 200,000 tons of coal were mined, and that the sales footed up a total of $800,000 or more. Most of this coal came from the vicinities of Erie, Cañon City, and El Moro or Trinidad. The Golden and Cucharas coal measures were also quite profitable. Many new deposits have lately been discovered and opened more or less; among them are several veins in Boulder, Jefferson, Park, Ouray, El Paso, and elsewhere. This article is coming into very general use for smelting, milling, mining, and domestic purposes.

A most important decision relating to the side lines of mines was delivered by the Supreme Court of the State during the year. It is the first that has ever been delivered on the subject. The case is entitled Wolfly and Skinner vs. Lebanon Mining Company, being an appeal from the District Court of Clear Creek County, in an action of ejectment brought to recover possession of eight hundred feet of the Ben Harding lode. The Court held that the title of the plaintiff was founded upon the

patent granted by act of Congress, that its intention was to grant a lode, and that the grantee had a right to follow it within its side lines, although it should in its depth pass into the adjoining lands; but outside of those side lines he had no title to it, and it became the property of any one who has subsequently located it. Chief Justice Thatcher said:

The declaration contained three counts, in the first of which the appellee claimed title in fee, and in the second and third he claimed title by preemption, Occupation, possession, and purchase under and by virtue of the local laws, custom, and usages of miners in Griffin Mining District, the laws of Colorado, and those of the United States. In support of the second and third counts, much evidence was introduced, which, however, the Court charged the jury to disregard in the following instructions:

"After the issuing of the patent, all previously acquired rights by the patentee under the local laws, usages, and customs of the particular district in which the claim is located, are merge in the patent; and the plaintiff having put in evidence a patent from the United States, you must not consider the right or title acquired prior to the issuing of the patent, such rights being merged in the patent."

Whether this instruction correctly lays down the law we need not now decide. It could not prejudice the defendant. It is enough to say that by this instruction the jury were necessarily confined to the issue made upon the first count. By their verdict they found that the plaintiff was the owner in fee of the property described in the declaration. This verdict was responsive only to the first count.

The evidence tended to show that the Ben Harding lode in its general course or strike departed from the vertical side lines of the location described in the patent, and represented by the plat incorporated therein, and entered the Bell tunnel lode location, which was patented under the act of Congress of May 10, A. D. 1872. That the plaintiff had the right to so follow the patented lode was affirmed in the instructions of the Court. Upon this theory the case was tried. To determine its correctness, reference must be had to the act of Congress of July 26, 1866, under which the Ben Harding lode was patented.

At common law a grant of land carries with it all that lies beneath the surface down to the center of the earth. At his pleasure the owner of the soil may apply to his own purposes whatever is included in the segment of the earth carved out by his descending exterior boundary lines Says Sir William Blackstone (book ii., page 18), Cujus est solum, ejus est usque ad cœlum, is the maxim of the law. Upward, therefore, Lo man may erect any building or the like to overhang other land; and downward, whatever is in a direct line, between the surface of any land and the center of the earth, belongs to the owner of the surface, as is every day's experience in the mining countries.

By the rules of the common law, except so far as such rules have been modified by statute, must the extent of the plaintiff's patented grant be determined. That there may, however, be a grant of mineral separate from the grant of the circumjacent land, and vice versa, where the grantor manifestly intends that each shall form a distinct possession and different inheritance, admits of no doubt. The question recurs, What did Congress, by its declared will in the act of 1866, authorize the United States to grant? In the light of a just interpretation of this act must the Ben Harding patent be construed. If the patent is broader than the law, it is to that extent ineffectual. Based upon the statute, its validity, and the extent to which it operates as a conveyance, must be determined by reference to the statute.

Section 2 provides that it shall be lawful for the claimant of a vein or lode "to file in the local landVOL. XVIII.-8

A

office a diagram of the same, so extended laterally or otherwise as to conform to the local laws, customs, and rules of miners, and to enter such tract and receive a patent therefor, granting such mine together with the right to follow such vein or lode, with its dips, angles, and variations, to any depth, although it may enter the land adjoining, which land adjoining shall be sold subject to this condition. This section clearly permits the patentee to follow the lode in its descending course to any depth, although in its downward trend it is carried by its dips, angles, and variations into the adjoining land. Here is a departure from the common-law doctrine. The qualifying words, however, "to any depth," limit the direction in which the mine may be pursued beyond the side lines. The claimant is required to file in the land-office a diagram of his vein or lode. This is his own act. The law contemplates that before he prepares his diagram he shall so far expose and develop the lode as to be able to trace its course. The position that if the plat made by the surveyor does not cover the lode, the patentee should be permitted to shift the lines of his patent so as to include the lode, which he before through his ignorance or indolence failed to locate, is, it is conceived, without force. The error is not the mistake of a government officer, but the mistake of a claimant, and others ought not to be permitted to suffer by it. It is not the province of the surveyor to either discover or determine the course of the vein. He acts under the directions of the claimant of the mine, who has already furnished a diagram of his lode. His duties are to survey the located premises, and make a plat thereof, endorsed with his approval, disignating the number and description of the location, the value of the labor and improvements, and the character of the vein exposed. (See section 3.) However tor tuous might be the course of the lode, the claimant had a perfect right to follow it up and prepare his diagram so as to include it, together with the surface ground on each side thereof allowed by local laws. There is no language in the act that requires the diagram to be in the form of a parallelogram or in any other particular form.

From an examination of the entire act it seems to us that the central idea of a mining location under its provisions is, that there must be a discovered lode within it whose locus in its general course is embraced within its boundaries.

An assumed mining location, which, in fact, contains no mine, would be wholly false, and would contravene the law. Until a patent issues, to the extent only in its downward course that a discovered lode is within the prescribed exterior boundaries of the claim, is the location itself unassailable. Patterson vs. Hitchcock decided this term. The surface ground and the lode are not independent grants. It is not the purpose of the act to grant surface ground without a discovered ledge. The lode is the principal thing, and the surface ground incident thereto. In conveying a segment of the earth located under the provisions of the act, it is the intention of Congress to convey a mine contained within that segment as the substance of the grant.

The act appeals to the industry and enterprise of the miner, to make sure that the lode is within his location. The higher his diligence in this respect, the greater will be his reward. If by lack of assiduity and energy he makes an untrue location-a location not embracing the lode he seeks to secure-he can not be heard to complain that others have explored and discovered a lode thereon which might have been embraced in his diagram. If, as the evidence tends to show, the Bell tunnel lode is a continuation of the Ben Harding lode (after its departure from the vertical side lines), extending through the adjacent location, upon what principle of justice or law, in the absence of an express statutory provision, can the patentee of the lode last named claim the right to encroach upon premises embraced by

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the Bell tunnel lode location and deprive the owner is evidence that the annual increment of nathereof of the fruits of his discovery?

The Chief Justice thus concludes:

If, then, as the evidence tends to show, the ledge on which the Ben Harding lode was located deflected in its general strike from the patented side lines, the patentee is not entitled in virtue of his patent to its possession beyond the side lines, as against one who has subsequently located and patented it.

Judgment reversed, and cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. The enabling act of Congress under which the State government was organized granted for school purposes 3,750,000 acres of land. The State Superintendent of Schools, who has examined this land, reports that the State will not realize more than 100,000 acres in lands that have any value, except a nominal one for grazing purposes.

oners.

In the State penitentiary there are 146 prisIn April, 1877, there were only 84. The expenses of the prison have been $65,917, and the earnings $8,522.

The State has already become famous for its mineral springs, and for the purity and healthiness of its atmosphere. It has also become a great resort for invalids, especially those with lung diseases.

COMMERCE (INTERNAL) OF THE UNITED STATES. Of the internal commerce of the United States no comprehensive statistical account is officially taken, by which the growth of the productive and inercantile activity of the country can be accurately determined. The extent of the traffic which is carried on within the borders of the republic can be approximately estimated from the amounts of merchandise conveyed over the various railroads. The value of commodities transported by rail in the interior of the United States was estimated by Joseph Nimmo, of the Bureau of Statistics, for the year 1875-'76, at $18,000,000,000, or about 16 times greater than the total foreign commerce of that year, which amounted to $1,121,634,277. The capitalized value of the railroads of the country was $4,600,000,000, or 23 times the capital employed in all the shipping, American and foreign, engaged in the foreign trade of the United States. The value of the merchandise transported from point to point in the United States, coast wise and on the lakes, rivers, and other avenues of commerce, would probably amount to near $10,000,000,000 more. The internal traffic between different points, probably 25 times greater in value than the total foreign trade, exceeds it in bulk in a far greater proportion; its tonnage is not likely to be less than 100 times that of the total imports and exports.

While the vacant lands of the country have been nearly all occupied, and nearly all the natural sources of wealth, as far as they are known, are being exploited,. there is yet no tendency apparent toward that condition of economical equilibrium where consumption balances production. On the contrary, there

tional capital has at no epoch been greater relatively to the number of the inhabitants, nor probably as great, as at the present time. In 1870 the total national wealth, in real and personal property, was estimated at $771 per capita, or over $30,000,000,000 against $16,000,000,000 in 1860, and $7,000,000,000 in 1850. It must now aggregate, measured by the inadequate standard of a money valuation, over $40,000,000,000. The increase in the aggregate annual productions of all manufacturing industries between 1860 and 1869 is estimated to have been from $3,804,000,000 to $6,825,000,000. Since the latter date industrial production has passed through a period of unprecedented stimulation and extension, followed by one of falling prices and consequent distress and anxiety; but, in spite of a temporary retardation in certain branches, the aggregate production has without doubt increased steadily, in spite of the falling market, with prices declining 30 per cent. or more on the average. The export demand has given an unusual impetus to agricultural production, and the financial condition of the country to industrial and mining activity. The official returns of agricultural statistics show a larger increment of agricultural wealth, and a greater increase of productivity, in the seven years from 1870 to 1877 than in the ten years of great business activity between 1860 and 1870. The area under cultivation was increased during the seven years 30,000,000 acres, or from 90,000,000 acres in 1870 to 120,000,000 acres in 1877. The increase in the aggregate stocks of farm products during the same period was as follows: in the number of horses, from 7,145,370 in 1870 to 10,329,700 in 1877; of mules, from 1,125,415 to 1,637,500; of milch kine, from 8,935,332 to 11,300,100; of oxen and cattle, from 14.885,276 to 19,223,300; of sheep, from 28,477,951 to 35,740,500; of swine, from 25,134,569 to 32,262,500; in the production of wheat. from 235,884,700 to 360,000,000 bushels; of corn, from 1,094,255,000 to 1,340,000,000 bushels; of oats, from 247,277,400 to 405,200,000 bushels; of barley, from 26,295,400 to 35,600,000 bushels; of rye, from 15,473,600 to 22,100,000 bushels; of tobacco, from 250,628,000 to 480,000,000 lbs.; of buckwheat, from 9,841,500 to 10,500,000 bushels; of hay, from 24,525,000 to 31,500,000 tons. The production of other raw materials increased in a similar progression. The cotton-growing industry has been steadily growing, and produced a larger crop in 1877 than in any other year since the civil war. The aggregate mining products have kept pace with agricultural development. The output of the coal mines was 47,000,000 tons in 1877, against 29,000,000 tons in 1870.

The directions in which American industry is developing can be best seen in the absence of comprehensive data of the internal trade and production of the country, by comparing the tables of exports and imports through a series of years, and noting the classes of articles of

consumption the importation of which has considerably decreased, and the classes of exported products whose quantities and values have remarkably augmented. That agricultural production has increased within the last few years more rapidly than industrial is perfectly natural, from the opening of avenues of transportation communicating with immense tracts of fertile lands, which were before shut out from all markets, but which can now lay down their products with facility in any mart on the globe where there is a demand for them. The length of new railroads constructed during the ten years from 1868 to 1877 inclusive was about 40,000 miles.

Coöperating with the increased facilities for marketing the natural products of the country abroad is a powerful stimulant, or rather necessity, for exporting the productions which are most available for that purpose, and for extending the branches of production which find the readiest market in the great commercial nations. This necessity consists in the great mass of indebtedness which is owing in this country to European capitalists, which is the chief cause and explanation of the large and still growing balance of trade in favor of the United States. For the last three years the excess of exports over imports has been very large, and has increased in a remarkable progression, while every other large commercial nation has in the same period complained of an adverse balance. While vast debts, public, corporate, and private, are owed in England and other foreign countries, there exists a market ready-made for the surplus products of the United States at better rates than could otherwise be obtained, and a stimulus and necessity for creating an exportable surplus of the commodities of which the creditor countries, or those connected with them by intimate commercial intercourse, stand most in need. A large exportation of grain and provisions is necessary to pay for the very railroads which bring them to the seaboard, a good number of which were built during the speculative period from 1869 to 1873, to a great extent with capital borrowed abroad, and with rails in great part imported at double the present prices of iron. The excess of exports over imports amounted in the year ending June 30, 1876, to $79,643,481. In 1877 it had increased to $151,152,094. In the year 1877-'78 it reached the sum of $257,814,234, and had increased by the end of October at such a rate that, were the exports and imports the same for the rest of the year as in 1877-'78, the balance of trade for 1879 would be over three hundred millions; yet the earlier movement of the grain crop of 1878 should be considered in the calculation.

Although the exportation of agricultural and other raw products has, from natural causes, relatively increased over that of manufactured products, the fact that the manufacturing industries have developed in a scarcely less remarkable manner is shown by the enormous

falling off of exports in many of the leading manufactured articles. It has been estimated that the exports of finished manufactures during the ten years preceding the war, 1851-1860, formed 13.8 per cent. of the total value of exports; but that during the ten years following the war, 1866-'76, they formed but 10.3 per cent. of the aggregate exports. This is sufficiently explained by the increased facilities for exporting the products of the soil. The growth of industrial production is shown by the rapid displacement of imported manufactures by home-made goods, which has gone on steadily since the civil war, and still more rapidly during the last three or four years, although the decrease of imports in those years is attributable in a considerable degree to the diminished capacity for consumption, just as no small portion of the large importations of the speculative period preceding them, which gave in one year an adverse balance of $180,000,000, was attributable to over-stimulated and luxurious consumption during that sanguine and debtmaking epoch.

According to the returns of the last census, the manufactures of the United States increased in the quantity of the annual product 52 per cent. during the ten years from 1860 to 1870, while the increase in population during the same period was only 222 per cent. The value of the yearly manufactured product was reported in 1850 as averaging $44 per head of the population, and in 1860 at $65 per head. In 1870 it was returned as $128 per head, and, making allowance for the inflation of prices, must have amounted to something near $100 on the former basis of values. Since 1870 the productive industries of the United States must have developed with equal or greater rapidity, and, judging by the returns of imports and exports, are capable of supplying the country with most of the great staples of manufacture, and even of marketing some classes of staple products and many well-wrought and ingeniously devised American specialties in countries from which a few years ago the same classes of goods were imported. During the period which preceded the late season of industrial depression, when all departments of enterprise were excited to an extraordinary state of activity, the industrial facilities of the country were extended with unreasonable rapidity. During the four years from 1870 to 1874 the number of spindles employed in milling cotton were increased from 7,114,000 to 9,415,383, or about 33 per cent. A similar extension of the plants was made in several other industries. This extension of productive capacity was out of all proportion to any possible increase of consumptive powers or extension of the foreign markets, and must be followed by a season of reaction and retardation. The number of spindles in 1878 is reported at about 10,500,000. That the hopes of the buoyant period of overwrought activity were not wholly misplaced, and that the efforts then made will

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