DIVISION OF PUBLICATIONS. 321 



EXPENDITURES FOR PRINTING AND BINDING. 



The allotment for printing and binding for the Department of 

 Agriculture for the, year was $130,000, to which should be added a 

 deficiency appropriation of $20,000, aggregating $150,000, of which 

 sum $20,000 was for the use of the Weather Bureau, over Avhich this 

 office had no supervision. Of the remaining $130,000, the expendi- 

 tures during the year were $128,104.71. This does not include the 

 total expenditures for printing and binding, since various Bureaus, 

 Divisions, and Offices have special funds to which printing may be 

 charged, although there is no specific amount set aside for such 

 purpose. 



The total expenditures from the three funds from which printing 

 may be defrayed — namely, the regular printing fund, the fund for 

 Farmers' Bulletins, and the divisional funds — are set forth in the 

 tables. These statements also show the amount expended for each 

 Bureau, Division, and Office from the general printing fund and a 

 summary of the expenditures under the several accounts of the Divi- 

 sion of Publications for the year. 



The total amount expended for printing and binding delivered to 

 the Department from July 1, 1901, to June 30, 1902, inclusive, was 

 $255,313.85. This, of course, does not include the publications 

 specially ordered b}' Congress. 



The total amount appropriated for the use of this Division for the 

 currcDt year, and including the pay of artists, the cost of labor and 

 material in the distribution of documents, and the salaries of the 

 editorial and clerical force, amounts to $383,820. To arrive at the 

 total cost of the printing of the Department, however, there must be 

 added thereto the cost of the Yearbook, of the annual reports of the 

 Weather Bureau, Bureau of Animal Industry, Bureau of Soils, and of 

 other publications specially ordered by Congress, amounting to con- 

 siderably over $400,000 more. This does not include the special 

 appropriation for the branch printing office of the Weather Bureau. 

 Including the cost of handling and distributing the Department's pub- 

 lications through the mail, the total amount properly chargeable to 

 the difi'usion of useful information by this Department under the 

 terms of the law Avill exceed $1, 000,000 Vearly. This is less than 20 

 per cent of the total appropriations for the Department, and it is 

 somewhat interesting to recall the fact that for the first twenty years 

 of the Department's existence the cost of printing was more than half 

 of the whole expenditure, or, inotherwords, thatthe costof distribution 

 of information considerably exceeded the amount expended in its acqui- 

 sition. Tables showing niimber and cost of the publications issued, 

 expenditures from various funds, etc., are given elsewhere. 



THE WORK OF THE BRANCH PRINTING OFFICE. 



The work of this office has very greatly increased during the past 

 j^ear. Reference to the table, given elsewhere, shows that during the 

 year 2,500 requisitions were drawn upon the branch printing office, 

 an increase over the previous year of 25 per cent. This does not, 

 however, fully represent the increase in the work, for the number 

 of pieces handled for the fiscal year 1902. aggregating 22,715,904, is 

 nearly 50 per cent more than the year previous. This great increase 

 in the volume of work was necessarily handled with serious difficulty, 



AGR 1902 21 



