630 



ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The enormous increase in the sales of the Department's publications 

 within recent years is shown in the following table: 



Sales of ngricuUural piihlicdiionfi by the Suitcrintriulvnt of Documents during 



(lie Ji.svdl i/caiH J!)U(i-J!)JO. 



It will be observed that within five years the number of copies sold 

 has increased over 205 per cent, while the amount received has in- 

 creased more than 240 per cent. 



No other Government publishes as many public documents as the 

 United States, and no other executive department of the Government 

 issues as many publications as the Department of Agriculture. It 

 is the function of this Department to acquire and disseminate useful 

 information in regard to agriculture. With the rapid increase in 

 population of the country and the consequent increasing demand for 

 publications it became ajDparent many years ago that the Depart- 

 ment could probably never secure an appropriation sufficient for 

 printing enough documents to supply the demand. Congress has, 

 however, provided a solution of the problem by authorizing the sale 

 of government publications at a nominal price. Under the opera- 

 tion of a provision of the law, the Superintendent of Documents can 

 reprint and sell any publication, so long as there is a demand for it, 

 without any expense to this Department. Consequently, by paying 

 the price affixed by law, applicants are able to secure documents which 

 can no longer be obtained from the Department, and which would 

 not otherwise be available, owing to the insufficiency of the Depart- 

 ment's fund for printing additional copies. It has become necessary, 

 therefore, to continue the policy of referring miscellaneous appli- 

 cants for scientific or technical publications to the Superintendent of 

 Documents when the limited editions of the Department are ex- 

 hausted and it is not possible to order additional copies. 



In 190G the Superintendent of Documents reprinted 43 publica- 

 tions of this Department, the total number of copies issued being a 

 little more than 10,000. During the past year he reprinted 462 differ- 

 ent publications, issuing a total of 112,092 copies, an increase in four 

 years of more than 1,000 per cent. 



The character of the publications of this Department reissued by 

 the Superintendent of Documents is shown by the following table : 



Classes of agricultural puhlications reissued by the Superintendent of Doctir 



ments during the fiscal year 1910. 



