DIVISION OF rUBLICATlONS. 127 



section, of 291,155. Adding to tliis nnmber the letters and other com- 

 munications prepared in the main office of the Division, we have the 

 enormous number of 300,000 seijarate communications prei^ared, 

 addressed, and mailed during the year, or 1,000 for each working- 

 day. When it is remembered that each one of these communications 

 involves the consideration, handling, and filing of an order or an 

 application, some idea may be formed of the amount of clerical and 

 semiclerical work entailed ui3on the document section, largely per- 

 formed by persons employed as laborers, and whose services are 

 consequently only incidentally available for clerical or semiclerical 

 work — a circumstance which adds largely to the difficulty of ade- 

 quately performing this vast amount of woi-k. 



The number of addressed franks, of registry records, of orders and 

 other miscellaneous matter involved the writing of no less than 

 3,380,400 names and addresses, covering the folding and dispatcli of 

 6,301,183 separate copies of documents, all of which had to be picked 

 out and entered in the i^ublications registers. Of these, 33,000 were 

 registered packages, and, to prevent duplication, a card index was kept 

 of 9 valuable publications aggregating 55,000 copies. The utilit}' of 

 this card index is shown by the fact that the first year it was under- 

 taken 3,600 duplications Avere prevented in the case of the Yearbook 

 alone. To the labor of distributing Farmers' Bulletins is added that 

 of stamping each envelope with the number and title of the bulletin 

 it contains — an operation trifling when applied to a few copies, but 

 aggregating an immense amount of labor when repeated nearly two 

 and one-half million times. 



The keeping of registers for all publications, save for circulars, and 

 of ledger accounts with individual Senators, Rei)resentatives, and 

 Delegates for Farmers' Bulletins, numbering last year 391 sej^arate 

 accounts, adds immensely to the clerical work of tlie section, and I 

 think it reflects the greatest credit upon the ijresent management that 

 the cost of handling and distributing our publications has been pro- 

 portionately greatly reduced since the organization of the Division on 

 its present basis and the inclusion in its domain ot tlie document 

 and folding room. 



The constant call upon this Division to supply persons to fill tem- 

 l^orarj^ vacancies iu other Divisions or to assist them in the case of 

 urgent extra work results in detaching from our force an average of 

 six to eight persons, who are, moreover, always and unavoidably 

 selected either from the most capal)le or most able-bodied, according 

 to the services required. The work of this section, as well as that of 

 the other branches of the Division, is sadly interfered with by the 

 unsuitable and inadequate character of the accommodations at our 

 disposal — accommodations not only ill adapted to the purpose they 

 are used for, but absolutely prejudicial to the health of the employees. 



The general record of the employees of this section is a most credit- 

 able one, especially in view of the constant anxiety attending employ- 

 ment on temporary roll. I desire to record my appreciation of the 

 capable service of the assistant in charge, Mr. R. B. Handy. 



EXPENDITURES FROM SPECIAL FUND OF THE DIVISION. 



The following statement shows the total expenditures during the year 

 from the special appropriation for this Division, including the amounts 

 for preparation and printing of Farmers' Bulletins, for artists and 



