Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1885.djvu/81

Rh The climate is remarkable for its equable temperature.

More than one-third of the population is engaged in farming and stock-raising.

The crop per acre for this year will not equal more than one-half the crop for 1884, but in the aggregate the yield of wheat, barley, oats, and rye will exceed that of any former year, on account of the increased settlement of surveyed agricultural lands.

Fruit of nearly every kind matures in a sound and healthy condition. At the Cotton Centennial Exposition at New Orleans Idaho was awarded the premium for apples and other varieties of fruit.

The mineral resources of the Territory constitute one of its chief interests. From the most reliable data at hand it appears that there are now in the Territory over two hundred mines which are paying dividends. Rich placer mines are more extensive than ever. The copper and mica mines are being successfully worked, and prove to be very valuable.

The indebtedness of the Territory is as follows:

At the end of the fiscal year the cash on hand was $74,814.90, an excess over indebtedness at that date of $5,546.30.

The total assessed valuation of property for 1884 was $15,497,598.34. This amount would be as large again were mining property in this Territory taxable. The policy of the Territory has been to encourage mining by all possible means.

The last session of the legislature authorized the issue of $80,000 in 7 per cent. bonds for the erection of the capitol building at Boisé City, and also the issue of $20,000 for au insane asylum at Blackfoot, in Bingham County. The capitol bonds are for twenty years, the Territory reserving the right to pay them at any time after ten years. Five thousand dollars of the bonds on account of the insane asylum will become due December 1, 1892, and $5,000 annually thereafter until all are paid. These bonds were eagerly taken by New York capitalists at par.

Both buildings are greatly needed. The Territorial offices are now in rented buildings in different parts of the city, and the sessions of the legislature have heretofore been held in hired halls, not at all suitable for legislative work.

In the Oregon insane asylum, at Salem, this Territory has thirty-five inmates, the expense for whom this year will reach about $11,000. It is expected that the Territorial asylum will be completed in the spring, and thereafter this money will be expended in the Territory.

It is also believed that Territorial prisoners could be kept at less expense if the penitentiary building now under the control of the United