other land products. The receipts of the land commission are now assigned to the proper fund to which they belong, and which were created by the act of 1915. The permanent school fund received:[1]
July 1 to Dec. 31, 1915 | $36,805.73 |
Jan. 1 to June 30, 1916 | 53,542.39 |
July 1 to Dec. 31, 1916 | 137,741.67 |
The institutions land funds were:[1]
Jan, 1 to June 30, 1916 | $6,124.65 |
July 1 to Dec. 31, 1916 | 18,961.35 |
After the selection and patenting of the school and institutional lands, the most important duties of the land department are those connected with the appraising, leasing, and selling of these lands to settlers. The demand is steadily increasing. In the first half year of administration under the present law, the period from July 1 to December 31, 1915, the total applications for all counties were 604, covering 249,350.01 acres. The total number of applications for these lands from the date of statehood, February 14, 1912, to December 31, 1916, was 15,939, of which 8,592 applications or more than half were received in the six months between July 1 and December 31, 1916. During this same six months’ period a total of 648,500 acres were selected by the State, and there were still to be selected by the terms of the enabling act a balance of 200,000 acres of institutional lands.