Another improvement encouraged by the State was the use of more efficient machinery for the preparation of iron from ore, the conversion of cotton or wool into thread, or paper. An Act of December 15, 1863, provided that any person or corporation installing improved equipment by March 1, 1865, would be granted 320 acres of land for each $1000 worth of machinery. Shortages arising out of the Civil War undoubtedly compelled this legislation. Southern States had been cut off from northern and European manufactures and took this, among other, means of encouraging Southerners to establish their own industry. One of the few companies that took advantage of this legislation was the Waco Manufacturing Company, which received 58 certificates for 320 acres each on January 6, 1873, and which later claimed and received the land to which they were entitled. Highways The Republic was interested in highway building as early as 1844. On February 5 of that year the Legislature provided for the construction of “The Central National Road of the Republic of Texas”, later called the Kiamisha Road. The legislative body decreed that the cost of the road should not exceed 160 acres of land for each mile constructed. The road was to stretch from near the mouth of the Elm Fork of the Trinity River to the Red River opposite the mouth of Kiamisha Creek, from which the road took its name. The highway was to be at least 30-feet wide, and all bridges were to be at least 15-feet wide. The Kiamisha Road was never built. CONSTRUCTION OF STATE CAPITOL On February 20, 1879, the State Legislature set aside 3,050,000 acres of land in West Texas to pay for a new State Capitol building. Interestingly, the act provided for the survey of this land and detailed a force of Rangers to protect the surveyors in their work. The cornerstone of the Capitol was laid on March 2, 1885, and the building was formally dedicated on May 16, 1888. The pink granite which forms the walls of the Capitol came from Granite Mountain near Marble Falls in Burnet County. Forty years after construction of the Capitol, it was discovered that too much land had been given to the contractor in exchange for building the structure. The State recovered 57,836 acres of land in 1924. This recovered land is in Dallam and Hartley Counties. SALE OF TEXAS LAND Governments almost always have experienced a need for money to pay debts. Texas the Republic and Texas the State have been no exceptions. An Act of the Congress of the Republic of Texas on December 10, 1836, empowered the President to issue scrip which could be traded for land in Texas. This scrip was to be sold by agents in the United States for not less than 50 cents an acre. Thomas Toby of New Orleans, Louisiana, was the most famous agent, and the land located with scrip he sold is classified in the General Land Office files today as “Toby Scrip”.