LIBRA-RY. 539 



life of this country. The gift represents the first special collection on 

 one subject which has ever been given to the library. A beginning 

 having been made, it is hoped that many other agricultural collections 

 may be received. As the national agricultural library, it would seem 

 that this library should attract to itself many such gifts of special 

 collections and manuscript material, for in no other center in the 

 country can they be of such great service. 



Another notable gift during the past year was a valuable addition 

 to the library's extensive collection of nursery and seed-trade cata- 

 logues. The donor was C. R. Orcutt, of La Jolla, Calif., a botanical 

 explorer, collector, and writer of note. An outgrowth of Mr. Orcutt's 

 wide acquaintance with the horticultural trade of the world has been 

 the accumulation through a period of more than four decades of an 

 exceptionally large and representative collection of the trade litera- 

 ture. The library was fortunate in being selected as the recipient of 

 the greater part of this collection, which added 339 publications new 

 to the library's files. The total number of catalogues now contained 

 in the library's collection of horticultural catalogues is 25,193, of 

 which 20,731 are United States catalogues and 4,462 are foreign. 



Among out-of-print periodicals, the most prized acquisition to the 

 library was the Agricultural Museum, the first agricultural periodical 

 published in this country. The library previously possessed a few 

 scattering numbers, but during the past year it received what is 

 believed to be a complete file through the gift of volume 1 from 

 H. A. Kellar, of the McCormick Library, Chicago, and the transfer 

 from the Library of Congress of volume 2, Nos. 1 to 11. The peri- 

 odical was published in Georgetown, D. C, from July, 1810, to May, 

 1812, and was edited by David Wiley, who was also secretary of the 

 Columbian Agricultural Society. It precedes by 10 years the Ameri- 

 can Farmer, of Baltimore, which is generally referred to as the first 

 agricultural periodical published in this country. 



While the amount spent during the past year for the purchase of 

 books was somewhat larger than in previous years, the number of 

 out-of-print books was smaller on account of the limited funds avail- 

 able for such purchases after meeting the demand for current books 

 and periodicals. Among the more important of the old books ac- 

 quired were the following: Bry, J. T. de, Florilegium Novum (1612); 

 Estienne, Charles, De Landwinninghe Ende Hoeve (1582) ; Heresbach, 

 Conrad, Foure Books of Husbandry (1577); Hesse, Heinrich, Neue 

 Garten-Lust (1703-1705) ; Virgil, Georgicorum libri quatuor, the Geor- 

 gics of Virgil, with an English translation and notes (1741) ; Vettori, 

 Pietro, Trattato delli Lodi et della Coltivazione degl'Ulivi (1569). 

 Among the more important purchases of current books should be 

 noted the fourth and final volume of the Monograph of the Pheasants, 

 by William Beebe, and volume I of A Natural History of Ducks, by 

 John C. Pliillips. Amon^ the reference books acquired are Allge- 

 meine Deutsche Biographic, 56 volumes; Dictionary of Applied 

 Physics, by R. T. Glazebrook, volumes 1 to 4; and The Practice of 

 Medicine, by Frederick Tice, in 10 loose-leaf volumes, which was 

 purchased at the request of the office of drug control, Bureau|of 

 Chemistry, for use in its court work under the food and drugs act. 

 Volumes 1 and 10 to 41 of the Zeitschrift fiir Wissenschaftliche 

 Zoologie have been secured, completing the set of this valuable 

 journal, with the exception of the rare volumes 2 to 9. 



