340 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Accordino^ to the record of accessions, the total number of books 

 and pamphlets accessioned by the Library up to July 1, 1919, was 

 156,648. From this number should be deducted 5,910 volumes Avhich 

 ■were discarded during the fiscal year 1915 and 589 which were dis- 

 carded in the past four fiscal years, leaving a balance of 150,149 

 books and pamphlets in the Library on July 1. 1919. 



Among the notable purchases of the year were Matthews's Birds of 

 Australia and Volume I of Beebe's Monograph of the Pheasants, Con- 

 ditions have not been favorable for acquiring old and rare desiderata, 

 but a few such books have been obtained from England and one ship- 

 ment from The Hague. Among old herbals the Library has obtained 

 Brunfels (1530-32), Gerarde (1597), a Criiyde-boeck of Dodoens 

 (15G3), the Greate Herball (1561),' and Egenolph's Plantarum, 

 Arborum, Fruticum, et Herbarum Effigies (1562). In gardening lit- 

 erature Thomas HilFs Gardener's Labyrinth (1577), Miller's Dic- 

 tionary, 6th ed. (1752), and Reid, The Scots Gardner (1766), are 

 notable. Otlier interesting items are John jNIitchell's Disserlatio 

 brevis de Principiis Botanicorum, cum Appendice Plantarum in Vir- 

 ginia Observatarum (1769) — a photostat copy, Detmer's Botanische 

 Wanderungen in Brasilien (1897), and Vigier, Historia das Plantas 

 de Europa (Lion, 1718), which is an early version in Portuguese of 

 the "Petit Bauhin." 



The Library was the recipient during the year of a large number 

 of volumes, which were formerly the property of the Rhode Island 

 Society for the encouragement of domestic industry. These Avere 

 presented by the estate of Frederick E. Perkins through ISIr. Charles 

 R. Starlf, of Providence, R. I. 



CATALOGUING AND CLASSIFICATION. 



The record of the material classified and catalogued during the 

 year is as folio ays: 2,020 volumes. 459 pamphlets, 3,549 serials and 

 continuations, and 17 maps and charts, making a total of 6,045, a 

 decrease of 1.778 as compared with the previous year. In addition 

 to the complete cataloguing of the above-mentioned items, author 

 cards Avere made for 273 pamphlets of less importance and 2,498 

 " reprints." 



There were added to the main (dictionary) catalogue 21,881 cards, 

 and 3,118 were withdraAvn, making a net addition of 18,763, a de- 

 crease of 3,620 compared Avith the previous year. The main (dic- 

 tionary) catalogue noAV contains approximately 110,000 cards. 



The number of titles j^repared during the year for printing by the 

 IjiV)rary of Congress in what is knoAvn as the "Agr" series Avas as 

 follows: Cards for accessions, 512; cards for Department publica- 

 tions, 656 ; total, 1.168, an increase of 108 over the previous year. The 

 total number of titles prepared by the Library since 1902, in Avhich 

 year the printing of cards Avas begun, noAv amounts to 31,266. 



The amount of uncatalogued material on hand July 1, 1919, Avas as 

 folloAA's: 368 volumes, 648 pamphlets, 943 continuations, and 6 maps — 

 a large increase over the previous year, due to the loss of assistants 

 Avho were experienced in cataloguing. 



