676 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



picture has been classified, aud tbo classiflcation number assigned to it, it la 

 indexed in the photographic card catalogue by specific subjects, such as names 

 of siiecies. lumbering operations, mountains and rivers, or whatever shows in 

 the picture. While the present scheme of classification is such that in a great 

 many cases it is not necessary to refer to the card index in selecting pictures, 

 the index is found to be invaluable when pictures of special species or subjects 

 lire desired. 



The jiresent system of having each picture mounted on r cardboard mat. and 

 filed in an upright position in drawers, while it requires more si)ace for the 

 filing, is on the whole more satisfactory than the album system of filing, as it 

 enables a person consulting the files to take out quickly and easily just the 

 pictures he wants, without danger of tearing them, and without having to take 

 out a whole album when only one or two photographs are needed. 



During the year the Library has furnished 8,293 descriptions, copies from the 

 photogra])hic notebooks, to accompany prints which have been made and sent 

 out from the photographic laboratory. This includes descriptions for the dupli- 

 cate prints which are sent to the district foresters' offices for filing, as the 

 original notebooks containing these descriptions are filed in the Washington 

 library. If some system of carbons could be provided in the photographic 

 notebook!?, so that a carbon copy of each description could be sent directly to 

 the district forester concerned, by the man taking the pictures, it would save a 

 great deal of copying in the Library. 



FIELD LIBRARIES.* 



There are now 157 field libraries, 146 in forest supervisors' offices, 6 in the 

 district offices, 3 at the forest experiment stations, 1 at the forest-products 

 laboratory, and 1 in the office of wood utilization at Chicago. The district 

 libraries average about 750 books apiece, and the supervisors' libraries about 

 88 apiece. The total number of books in field libraries at present is 17,933, of 

 which 3,676 were sent out during the present year. Of these, the majority 

 tvere free publications, either Government or State. The amount spent for the 

 purchase of books for the field during the year was $2,000. Purchases were 

 made from this fund on the recommendations of the district foresters, with the 

 approval of the library committee. 



Before books are sent out to field libraries, they are classified and cata- 

 logued in the Washington library, and are then charged to the library to which 

 they are to be sent, by the double-card charge system. Subject and author cata- 

 logue cards for the books sent to district libraries are also prepared in the 

 Washington library, and are sent out with the books. On January 1, 1911, 

 complete lists of the books in the district libraries were prepared and sent to 

 the district foresters. This is to be done once a year in future. 



Helen E. Stockbridge, Librarian. 



LIBRARY OF THE BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



SCOPE. 



When the Bureau of Plant Industry was moved into the west wing of the 

 new department building, bringing under one roof offices of the bureau which 

 had been widely scattered, the books which had been deposited in the Office of 

 Botanical Investigations and those which had been in the Office of Vegetable 

 Physiological and Pathological Investigations were brought together into one 

 collection, containing at present approximately 5,770 books and 4,350 pamphlets. 

 Of the bound volumes, about 1,554 are periodicals; of the pamphlets, about L260 

 are experiment station bulletins on the subject of plant pathology. The file of 

 experiment station literatui-e dealing with plant pathology is practically com- 

 plete, but no attempt is made to keep the station literature on other subjects. 

 With the exception of a few general reference works and dictionaries and refer- 

 ence works in chemistry and bacteriology, the collection consists almost entirely 

 of works on general and economic botany, plant pathology, mycology, and phar- 

 macology. 



1 Libiaries outside of Washington. 



