108 BOARD OF REGENTS. 



which are well calculated to diffuse knowledge. Such is the report on the recent im- 

 provements in the chemical arts, by Messrs. Booth & Morfit, prepared and published 

 under the direction of the institution. The Secretary has said of it, " that though 

 chiefly intended to benefit the practical man, yet it will be found interesting to the 

 general reader, as exhibiting the cotemporaneous advance of science and art, and the 

 dependence of the latter upon the former for the improvement of its most important 

 processes." Among the subjects of which it treats, may be mentioned fuel and fur- 

 naces, glass-making and pottery, cements, metals and their manufacture, chemicals, 

 textile fabrics, mineral and organic manures. This work has been stereotyped, and 

 besides those which are distributed on the plan of exchange, copies are offered for 

 sale at the mere cost of printing, paper, and commission. Another report which is in 

 preparation, on the forest trees of North America, giving their economical and orna- 

 mental uses and values, their history, mode of propagation, &c, &c, will supply to 

 agriculturists a work of great interest and importance which has long been a desider- 

 atum. Other reports have been prepared, and will be ready for the press as soon as 

 the funds can be appropriated for printing them. 



The committee need not repeat in detail all the parts of the plan of organization, 

 but may mention that it included the exchange of the published transactions of the 

 institution, with those of literary and scientific societies and establishments, and pro- 

 vided for a museum and library, to consist of a complete collection of the transactions 

 and proceedings of all the learned societies in the world, of the more important cur- 

 rent periodical publications and of other works necessary to scientific investigations ; 

 thus employing the instrumentalities pointed out in the law, as means of increasing 

 and diffusing knowledge, entirely consistent with, and necessary to, the plan of re- 

 search and publication. 



This plan is no longer experimental ; it has been tested by experience ; its success is 

 acknowledged by all who are capable of forming a correct estimate of its results ; and 

 the institution has every encouragement to pursue steadily its system of stimulating, 

 assisting, and publishing research. 



Whether the equal division of the income of the institution, according to the plan 

 of the compromise resolutions, should be observed after the completion of the build- 

 ing, is a question submitted to your committee for report, and proper to be decided by 

 the Board during the present year. The committee think that while moderate appro- 

 priations should be annually made for the gradual increase of the library, and for 

 other objects specified in the fifth section of the act establishing the institution, so as 

 to carry out in good faith the intention of Congress, it is not advisable to make the 

 equal division of the income as proposed by the compromise resolutions. 



The public generally, and even the Regents most probably, do not know how small 

 the funds of the institution are in proportion to what is required of it, and the expense 

 necessarily connected with so large a building. 



The Secretary has stated in his report that the general expenses — viz : meetings of 

 the Regents and committees, lighting and heating of the building, postage, transpor- 

 tation, stationery, general printing, apparatus, incidentals, and general salaries — have 

 gradually increased, and will grow larger when the building shall be completed and 

 entirely occupied. Last year these expenses amounted to $12,000. Besides this, the 

 salaries of the assistants and pay of attendants in the library and museum are $5,740 

 per annum. 



The salaries are as follows : 



General Salaries. 



That of the Secretary (per annum) $3,500 



Clerk 1,000 



Book-keeper 200 



Janitor 400' 



Laborer 250 



"Watchman 365 



5,716- 



Salary of assistant in charge of the library $2,500 



An assistant to the assistant in the library GOO 



Another assistant 540 



$6,640 



Salary of assistant in charge of the museum 2,000 



Assistance and labor in museum . 100 



5,740 





Total of permanent salaries at the present time 11,455 



