No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 87 



PUBLICATIONS. 



The Department has prepared and published during the rear its 

 Seventh Annual Report, in two volumes. Volume one contains 1,040 

 pages, and volume two 464 pages. The law provides for the print- 

 ing of 31,600 copies of this report, to be distributed to the Senate 

 9,000 copies; to the House of Representatives 20,000 copies; to the 

 Department of Agriculture 2,000 copies; to the State Librarian 500 

 copies; and to the State Agricultural Experiment Station 100 copies. 



The Department is seriously embarrassed in not having a sufficient 

 number of these reports to supply the demand. At least 5,000 

 copies should be given to the Secretary for distribution. Requests 

 come from all of the States, and from foreign countries, for copies of 

 our reports, many of which have to be denied owing to the supply 

 having become exhausted. 



The Department is endeavoring to improve the character of its 

 Annual Reports each year, by excluding all superficial and irrele- 

 vant matter, and publishing only that which has been well digested 

 and which promises to be helpful to agricultural people. The addi- 

 tion of an AppeirSix, containing statistical data, has supplied the 

 farmers of the State with useful tables for reference, and has been 

 highly commended. 



The laW' authorizes the Secretary to print bulletins of information 

 "upon such subjects relating to agriculture as he may deem useful." 

 Each publication is limited to five thousand copies, a number alto- 

 gether inadequate for the supplj^ of the demand for some of the 

 editions. The law should permit the Secretary, in his discretion, 

 to print copies of any bulletin to a limit of 25,000, the number being 

 governed by the demand for the publication. Bulletins for which 

 there is likely to be slight demand would have the edition restricted 

 to the number that would probably be needed, and if it was discov- 

 ered later that the edition was inadequate, there could be a second 

 and third edition published, up to the 25,000 limit. 



The Department has published since its organization in 1895, one 

 hundred and six of these bulletins, embracing a wide variety of 

 subjects, treated by some of the most capable investigators in the 

 country. During the past year there have been published nineteen 

 bulletins, upon the following subjects: 



