814 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



wpll-cqiiippod librarjs ByKtomatically arranged and properly conducted, is an im- 

 perative necensity to any scientific institution — it is the fuel to the fire. For years 

 the Department's worka have been crowded into a room too small for the purpose, 

 with no suitable place for preservation from insects and dust or against loss and con- 

 fusion, always in anticipation that it would be deemed wise on the part of Consress to 

 relieve a condition of affairs here which in ordinary business would be corrected 

 without delay. I have been compelled to recognize these dangers, and in order to 

 better systematize the library and to ])rotect valuable public property, much of which 

 can not be replaced, I have removed the museum objects from exhibition in the main 

 building to another portion of the grounds, and am now engaged in removing the 

 library to that floor, where it will have abundant room for many years to come. With 

 a new laboratory building, and with this change, the Department will be temporarily 

 relieved of the present pressure for room, though tlie erection of a new and properly 

 arranged Department building of less inflammable character than the present one 

 would still seem to be the part of wisdom. 



From the following extract from the report of the commissioner 

 for 1889 one may infer that larger quarters were not, however, all 

 that was needed for the usefulness of tlie Lil^rary: 



An essential to efficient work is a well-selected and well-stocked library, which shall 

 cover all the lines of inquiry of agriculture and agricultural science. It is useless to 

 attempt to do first-class work that shall pass the scrutiny of the sharpest criticisms 

 without having at hand what has been done and said in the past and wliat is constantly 

 coming in from a prolific press. Our library, of .something like 20,000 volumes only, 

 is specially weak in the Government publications, some of which are of rare merit; 

 in the agricultural reports of the several States, for which there is a great depaand; 

 in general agriculture, without which no one can well treat agriculture historically; 

 in foreign agricultural reports and publications, without which in these timesof cosmo- 

 politan thought and work no such library as ours is properly equipped; and in several 

 lines specially needed by the respective divisions of the Department. All the divi- 

 sions need strengthening. The library has but a fugitive volume or two of any herd 

 book, and is so wofuUy lacking in many lines that I refrain from further specifying. 



In the change of the library from the old room, which was so small as to compel a 

 suspension in a measure of the collection of more books and the rejection of the Govern- 

 ment publications, to ampler quarters, it was, for want of help, badly disarranged, so 

 that what we had was so difficult to find that it was almost a bar to any attempt to 

 make a comprehensive study of any topic. A special effort has been made to rearrange 

 and reclassify it, and we now hope for a more satisfactory use of what we have and 

 for an appropriation sufficient to fill up the gaps and place it on a proper footing. 



The work of classifying the Library above referred to was done by 

 Mr. W. I. Fletcher, Librarian of Amherst College, who in the summer 

 of 1889 was specially employed for a period of about six weeks to 

 reclassify the collection. He j)repared a scheme of xlassification for 

 the Library (which classification with amplifications is still being 

 used by the Library), and with the assistance of four or five persons 

 began a shelf list. This was carried on and completed after Mr. 

 Fletcher's special work of classifying was done. 



The next important date in the history of the Library was 1893, 



when a civil-service examination was held for the position of Librarian 



of the Department. Previous to this date the position had not been 



under the Civil Service. The report of the Secretary of Agriculture 



for the fiscal year 1894 contains the following reference to the 



Library: 



Since the present librarian, Mr. W. P. Cutter, who was certified by the United 

 States Civil Service Commission, took charge of the library of the Department of 

 Agriculture modern methods have been introduced, for the first time, into its conduct. 

 A dictionary catalogue has been instituted, and the books have been arranged in a 

 regular system, in accordance with which the valuable material in it will be made 

 available for students. The increased appropriation has been used to fill out the 

 fragmentary sets of scientific periodicals and to purchase works bearing upon the 

 sciences studied by the Department experts. A reading room has been arranged and 

 increased facilities provided for the convenience of investigators. The library haa 

 been made in this manner a working laboratory instead of a miscellaneous storehouse. 



