EEPOET OF THE SECRETARY, 229 



library. It was, as far as known, the first attempt on the part of 

 any institution to furnish to the outside world a complete printed 

 card catalogue of its publications. The service in printed cards was 

 still further increased in 1902, when the printing by the Library of 

 Congress of the catalogue cards for accessions to this library was 

 begun, the library of the department being the first of the depart- 

 ment libraries to cooperate in this way with the Library of Congress. 



In addition to issuing these printed cards, the library has made its 

 resources better known by printing separate catalogues of publica- 

 tions relating to botany, forestry, irrigation, and entomology, and 

 lists of its periodicals. It has also published regularly a bulletin of 

 its accessions. 



In 1897 the library occupied the large room on the second floor of 

 the main building into which it had been moved 10 years previously, 

 and it continued to occupy this room until 1908, when, on the com- 

 pletion of the new laboratory buildings, it was moved to the ground 

 floor of the east Aving. The rooms being designed for laboratories 

 are not well fitted for library use, but it is a matter for congratulation 

 that the library is now stored in a fireproof building, as it would 

 mean an almost irreparable loss to the department if the library's 

 collections were destroyed. 



INCREASING USE OF LIBRARY. 



With the growth of the department in the past 16 years the use of 

 the library has increased more than 500 per cent. Its usefulness to 

 the State agricultural colleges and experiment stations has also been 

 greatly extended. Whereas only an occasional book was formerly 

 borrowed by an agricultural college or experiment-station worker, 

 during the past year 620 books were lent to workers in 39 different 

 States and Territories, in range from Maine to Hawaii and from 

 Oregon to Florida and Porto Rico. By increasing and perfecting 

 the library's collections, in order that it may more fully meet the 

 demands made upon it and by making its collections and services 

 widely useful, the library is from year to year performing more and 

 more the duties of a national library of agriculture. 



FOEEST SERVICE. 

 PREVIOUS ORGANIZED ACTION. 



Forestry in the United States at the beginning of 1897 was still in 

 its dark ages. Its general practice seemed about as imminent as 

 when Columbus first set foot upon the shores of a new world. A 

 few far-sighted and public-spirited men had tried from time to time 

 to arouse realization of the danger that lay ahead if wasteful de- 

 struction of a great primary resource were not checked; but they 



