REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 137 



A report on the marketing and transporting of grain in the region 

 of the Great Lakes, made toward the close of the fiscal year, treats of 

 the reduction in the cost of sending grain to market and the increased 

 quantities handled during the last quarter century. 



Preliminary work was done on an investigation to show the con- 

 ditions affecting the cost of selling and delivering grain and live 

 stock in the Pacific Coast States. 



The nineteenth investigation of the wage rates paid to farm labor 

 was well advanced at the close of the year. This inquiry has included 

 many items of supplementary wages, such as house rent, firewood, 

 and laundry work, often not considered in studies of money wages. 

 The cost of living of the farm laborer, compared with that of 

 employees in the cities, has also been considered as affecting his real 

 wages. 



A study of the dates of planting and harvesting crops throughout 

 the world has been under way during the year, with the cooperation 

 of many experts in other branches of the Department, and gives 

 promise of interesting results. 



LIBRARY. 



Like everything else about the Department, the Library is for 

 service, and as a reference library its first duty is to the Department's 

 employees. But it is also able to aid the scientists in the agricul- 

 tural colleges and experiment stations, to whom it made 548 loans of 

 books from its shelves, which is a slight return for the many favors 

 and benefits which scientists connected with the Department have 

 enjoyed through the generous poUcy of other libraries in lending 

 books for use in the work of the Department, amounting to 4,701 

 volumes. 



The accessions of books, pamphlets, and maps totaled 8,156, of 

 which 3,646 were gifts, making the total number of recorded books 

 and pamphlets available for use of investigators 109,630. 



The increasing interest in agricultural libraries and agricultural 

 literature on the part of hbrarians and their efforts to serve the 

 farmer is worthy of note. At the seventh annual meeting of the 

 League of Library Commissions, held in connection with the ^Vmerican 

 Library Association Conference at Mackinac Island, June 30, 1910, 

 one session was devoted to the general subject of commission work 

 with the farmer, and it is hoped that a permanent agricultural 

 libraries section will be formed, which will be the means of bring- 

 ing about closer cooperation among agricultural libraries, of further- 

 ing their advancement, and of stimulating interest in agricultural 

 literature. 



