SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



Ottawa Meeting, 1909. 



The compilation, publication and distribution of the Trans- 

 actions is an important part of your secretary's business. It 

 is often the case that papers have been read only by title be- 

 fore the Academy, so that the publication committee cannot 

 pass upon them until after reading and examination. Orig- 

 inality and value as contributions to science must be the chief 

 conditions of acceptance, but it has frequently happened that 

 limitation in the size of our volume has excluded papers which 

 would otherwise have been printed. 



Until the twentieth volume was reached our Transactions 

 were only published biennially, with a few exceptions when 

 the earlier numbers were appendices to the reports of the sec- 

 retary of the State Board of Agriculture, of which body, by 

 the Laws of 1873, the Academy was made a "coordinate de- 

 partment." 



The nineteenth volume, compiled by Secretary Grimsley, 

 was unusually large and expensive, and was the last of our 

 Transactions published under the old regime of state printing. 

 This large expense was fortunate for us, as it became the basis 

 for scaling down appropriations, and when I was told to limit 

 the expenses to about two-thirds of the previous year's it was 

 understood that we could get quite as much printing done with 

 the smaller appropriation. 



The long delay in the publication of papers has always been 

 a source of annoyance to members, who have had to wait in 

 some cases nearly two years before seeing their contributions 

 in print. To remedy in part this delay the Printing Board 

 was asked to honor a requisition for an annual volume under 

 the stipulation that our printing expenses would not exceed 

 the appropriation granted. The state printer saw in this plan 

 convenience to his department, since it would relieve some- 

 what the rush of legislative years. So the next year after the 

 nineteenth volume was issued we were able to print volume 

 XX, and, to carry out the old plan of a biennial volume, it was 



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