Library of the Department of Agriculture. 135 



THE LIBRARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 

 AGRICULTURE. 



Bj^ Paul Ribbink, Librarian. 



The Library of the Department at Pretoria is becoming one of the 

 most valuable assets the research worker in agriculture and the 

 farmer have at .their disposal. Housed in a noble circular room 

 in the Union Buildings with radiating book shelves of teak, it is 

 becoming indispensable to the Department, and a great attraction 

 to a numerous aiid increasing body of students of agriculture and 

 journalists, as well as to practical farmers. The reading tables are 

 laden with agricultural literature from every part of the world, some 

 8000 diiferent serials in all. The shelves contain books covering 

 every branch of agriculture and other allied subjects. 



A library constitutes part of the tools of trade of the investigator 

 of agricultural matters, who, with a well equipped collection at his 

 service, finds his work greatly lightened through the possession of 

 data already published in connection with similar problems in other 

 countries. In many cases the country is saved months of salaried 

 time and considerable experimental funds on investigation, through 

 the possession of its library, and the more up-to-date and complete 

 that library is, the greater the efficiency the Department and its value 

 to the public. Libraries form a most vital part of a nation's equip- 

 ment to hold its own in the struggle for a-n honourable place in 

 civilization and a fair share of the benefits thereof. 



In other countries, such as Great Britain and the United States, 

 the value of business literature has been recognized, and we even 

 find large business houses and banks possessing their own collections ; 

 notable among these in the United States of America are the National 

 City Bank with 20,000 volumes and 400,000 indexed pamphlets; 

 the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company with 19,000 volumes, and 

 the J. P. Morgan Company with more than 6000 volumes. 



The new Library catalogue is now being prepared and will be 

 published during this year. The general arrangement, cataloguing, 

 and classification is on the Dewey decimal system, although in a 

 form modified to suit the immediate requirements of the collection. 

 The number of books amounts to roughly 9000 bound volumes and 

 5000 unbound volumes, witli 14,000 bulletins and leaflets, and 3000 

 periodicals. The main subjects, numbering about 500 with numerous 

 sections, are grouped somewhat as follows and are limited to publica- 

 tions bearing on agricidture and its branches : — 



(1) General literature, including biography, travels, history, 



etc. 



(2) Reference books (such as dictionaries, encyclopaedias, 



directories, etc.). 



(3) Public documents (blue books, etc.). 



