ber 2d, 1884, $15,323.88 was the sum expended, embracing Geological Department, Louisville and Boston Expositions, Agriculture, Immigration, and the expenses necessary to Statistics, Weather Service, Seed, Printing, Stationery, Postage, Mailing, Clerk hire, and the other items incident to the same. Seeds of value and in considerable quantities, contributed by the United States Commissioner of Agriculture, and by some public-spirited citizens of Tennessee, as well as those purchased by the State Commissioner, have been gratuitously distributed to the crop reporters of the Bureau and to other persons of the State engaged in agriculture. The statistics of growing crops, of manufactures, and of the commerce of the State, are complete, so far as the present facilities of the Bureau will allow, and legislation is needed to place some means in the hands of the Commissioner to enable him to command this important information.

Signal Service facilities need enlargement in the State, as the present system is wholly inadequate to accomplish the valuable results contemplated.

On account of a growing spirit of manufacturing interest in Tennessee, I would suggest the importance of enlarging the items embraced under the title "Crop Statistics," so as to include the collection of statistics of manufacturing interests in the State.

Tennessee agriculture was never more promising than at present. The farmers of the State are endeavoring to keep abreast with the times. They are adopting new methods and improved machinery generally throughout the State.

The duties of the Bureau in correspondence, crop reports, weather service, etc., which demand daily attention, are much greater than heretofore, and will continue to increase as the value of the service is appreciated by the people.

The Commissioner reports that as an outcome of the Expositions held at Louisville and Boston more than one million of dollars, besides one thousand families, have been attracted to the State. Th immigrants have been chiefly skilled mechanics. The Exposition at New Orleans is an opportune occasion to publish to the world the unrivaled mines, resources and agricultural productiveness of the State. The Commissioner, with commendable energy and a comparatively small amount of money, has arranged in part the Tennessee exhibit, but an additional appropriation is needed to complete the work and make it creditable to the State. As to what this

amount should be, I can only cite you to the report of the Commissioner and the action of other States. Every Tennessean should, and does, feel a pride in the presentation our State shall make at the Exposition, where a just and generous rivalry obtains among nations and States in the display of Nature's kindly gifts, as in mechanical, artistic and educational advancement.

GEOLOGY.

Special attention is called to the report of Prof. J. M. Safford,. State Geologist, on the agricultural and economic geology of Tennessee, and other matters of interest therein related. The public need of reliable and practical information relative to the soils of our State, and the formation underlying them, their adaptation to crops, and the increased interest in our vast but incompletely developed resources, would suggest the wisdom of thoroughly organizing this department, and equipping it for more extended usefulness. I quote from Prof. Safford's report when I say: "There is much work yet to be done in the elucidation of the agricultural and economic geology of the State, which a moderate appropriation of means would enable the geologist to carry on and perfect. The more we know of our lands and minerals, the better can we use them and the better advertise them." The officer in charge should be Geologist and Mining Engineer combined, whose duty, in addition to the unremunerated kind of labor which Prof. Safford has been giving to the State, shall be, every six months, and oftener if deemed necessary by the Governor, to visit and inspect. the mines throughout the State, where free labor or convict labor of the State is employed, and report their condition, as regards ventilation and proper regard for the health and lives of the laborers, to the Executive of the State. Adequate appropriation should be made to meet the necessary expenses of the work. I deem it appropriate to say here that Prof. Safford received only a hundred dollars during the biennial term, which was absorbed in necessary expenses while engaged in the work, as will be seen by his report. Nothing that has been done contributed more effectively to bringing into notice the resources of our State than Prof. Safford's work on the Geology of Tennessee, a work for which there is demand at home and abroad, that cannot be supplied, as the work is out of print. A moderate sum will be needed, and if appropriated, as it should be, will no doubt result in much good to the agricultural and mining interests of the State.

LAND TITLES.

It is believed, and not without good reason, that there are but few, if any, large bodies of lands in Tennessee, which, in the legal sense of the term, are "vacant lands," yet grants are constantly applied for and obtained, especially where mineral ore abounds, covering large tracts of territory, even in some of our older and more populous counties, where it is believed there is not an granted land.

acre of un

It has been my duty to sign grants for land for which, no doubt, several other grants had been issued. The surveyor's and entrytaker's certificates being in due form, the Governor is powerless to remedy the evil complained of. It has been brought to my knowledge that many grants have been obtained for the same land. In one instance it was shown in a suit that thirteen grants were issued covering the same tract of land. To find the same land covered with half a dozen or more grants is not infrequent. I have, as Governor, received letters from the victims of these frauds, complaining that the grants had been issued in due form by the State, and were genuine; and by virtue thereof, they had been induced to purchase, yet got no title. Such instances are not isolated, but numerous. This breeds irritating and expensive litigation at home, while it creates distrust abroad, and operates as an impediment to immigration, investment and development.

I call this to your attention, and invoke legislation that will prevent such frauds being practiced under the name of the State.

JUDICIARY.

In my first message to the Forty-third General Assembly, I called their attention to the overcrowded condition of the Supreme Court docket and to the 17th section of the bill of rights, which declares "that all courts shall be open, and every man for an injury done him in his lands, goods, person, or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law, and right and justice administered without sale, denial or delay."

In accordance with the recommendations of that message, the act approved March 30, 1883, Chapter 257, was passed, authorizing the appointment, in each grand division of the State, of three persons, one from each grand division, learned in the law, who should compose a commission of referees, to whom the Supreme Court might, by rule made in vacation or term time, refer such civil

causes (except revenue causes) as were then pending in said Court at any time prior to the 1st day of January, 1885, at Jackson, Knoxville and Nashville for investigation, and report upon the law and facts, such reports to be in writing and be signed by at least two of said referees. The further provisions of the act are famil

iar to many of your honorable body.

By the 6th section of the act, the term of office of the referees shall not continue longer than two years from the date of their appointment, and shall terminate sooner if the business referred to them shall be sooner finished.

Referees were accordingly appointed on or about the 15th of May, 1883, and they at once entered upon their duties, and have in each grand division been equally active, vigilant and faithful in their discharge.

My information is that at Knoxville and Jackson, the referees have by their efficient labors so nearly finished the business referred to them that they can quite complete it by the expiration of the two years from the date of their appointment, but at Nashville, owing to greater amount of business, the referees have not been able to finish it. Up to December 1, 1884, the referees at Nashville tried and reported on 915 causes, bringing the docket down to January 1, 1882. To 486 of these causes so reported on, no such exceptions were filed, and the reports were confirmed by the Supreme Court from the bench without argument. There remained on the Supreme Court docket at Nashville, December 1, 1884, 876 causes filed since January 1, 1882, not reported on by the referees, and there have been filed since January 1, 1884, a little over 300 causes, thus still leaving on the docket about 1,176 causes not reported on by the referees on December 1, 1884, notwithstanding their incessant labors. When you consider these facts, you will see at once the vast amount of business that the referees have dispatched, and how they have relieved the Supreme Court docket. But you will see at the same time that some provision should be made for the aid of the Supreme Court in disposing of the business yet crowding it at Nashville. I therefore recommend that you provide, by proper legislation, for the continuance of the term of office of the referees holding their sessions at Nashville, for such length of time as is necessary to accomplish the unfinished work, or by such other legislation as in your wisdom may seem most judicious, to provide for the relief of the Nashville docket, otherwise it will take years before suitors can have their rights determined, notwithstanding the arduous

labors of the Supreme Court. I repeat the language of my first message to the Forty-third General Assembly in regard to the Supreme Court: "It is not the fault of the court that the docket is crowded. It is conceded that the court does all in their power to dispatch the business."

There is complaint from various quarters, of the great cost incurred in' the prosecution of criminals. I would recommend that you provide by appropriate legislation, that the Clerks of the various courts in the State that try criminals shall keep a true and correct record of the disposition of every indictment in their courts whether dismissed or tried, and whether convicted or acquitted, and the verdict and judgment, and that the several Clerks make correct and faithful report thereof to the Attorney-General of the State on or before the 19th day of December, immediately preceding each regular session of the Legislature, and that the Attorney-General report the same to the Governor, who shall transmit it to the Legislature. This will bring before the public the exact facts as to the working of each court, and the economy or extravagance of each court can be seen and known to the law-making power and tax-paying public. This is now in force in several States, and has effected material change in lessening the cost in criminal cases. I further suggest that the cost of our courts might likewise be considerably lessened by changing the districts and lessening the number of Chancellors, Circuit and Criminal Judges in the State. some of them is of such a nature as to courts to get through their Term business in half the time it required ten years ago. This change, however, should you conclude to make it, ought not to go into effect just now, but should take effect time enough before the judicial election in 1886 to have the present districts changed into he new ones.

The legal business in enable many of the

REWARDS OR CRIMIMALS.

The amount appropriated by the last General Assembly for this purpose was only $2,000 for the two years, there being only $1,599.87 left over from the previous administration of the fund so appropriated, making a total of $3,597.87 for the two years. This is greatly inadequate to meet the obligations of the State for rewards offered for fugitives from justice, and the expenses of agents of the State to bring them back under requisitions, where no rewards were offered. The rewards