PATENTS.

During the year ending September 30, 1872, there were issued from the Patent Office 13,626 patents, 233 extensions, and 556 certificates and registries of trade-marks.  During the same time 19,587 applications for patents, including reissues and designs, have been received and 3,100 caveats filed.  The fees received during the same period amounted to $700,954.86, and the total expenditures to $623,553.90, making the net receipts over the expenditures $77,400.96.

Since 1836 200,000 applications for patents have been filed and about 133,000 patents issued.  The office is being conducted under the same laws and general organization as were adopted at its original inauguration, when only from 100 to 500 applications were made per annum.  The Commissioner shows that the office has outgrown the original plan, and that a new organization has become necessary.  This subject was presented to Congress in a special communication in February last, with my approval and the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, and the suggestions contained in said communication were embraced in the bill that was reported to the House by the Committee on Patents at the last session.  The subject of the reorganization of the Patent Office, as contemplated by the bill referred to, is one of such importance to the industrial interests of the country that I commend it to the attention of Congress.

The Commissioner also treats the subject of the separation of the Patent Office from the Department of the Interior.  This subject is also embraced in the bill heretofore referred to.  The Commissioner complains of the want of room for the model gallery and for the working force and necessary files of the office.  It is impossible to transact the business of the office properly without more room in which to arrange files and drawings, that must be consulted hourly in the transaction of business.  The whole of the Patent Office building will soon be needed, if it is not already, for the accommodation of the business of the Patent Office.

PENSIONS.

The amount paid for pensions in the last fiscal year was $30,169,340, an amount larger by $3,708,434 than was paid during the preceding year.  Of this amount $2,313,409 were paid under the act of Congress of February 17, 1871, to survivors of the War of 1812.  The annual increase of pensions by the legislation of Congress has more than kept pace with the natural yearly losses from the rolls.  The act of Congress of June 8, 1872, has added an estimated amount of $750,000 per annum to the rolls, without increasing the number of pensioners.  We can not, therefore, look for any substantial decrease in the expenditures of this Department for some time to come, or so long as Congress continues to so change the rates of pension.

The whole number of soldiers enlisted in the War of the Rebellion was 2,688,523.  The total number of claims for invalid pensions is 176,000, being but 6 per cent of the whole number of enlisted men.  The total number of claims on hand at the beginning of the year was 91,689; the number received during the year was 26,574; the number disposed of was 39,178, making a net gain of 12,604.  The number of claims now on file is 79,085.