1897. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 373 



Publication by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 



A note in our April number has caused somewhat of a scare 

 among the numerous European workers who have hitherto esteemed 

 highly the receipt of the valuable publications of the U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, publications which cover many departments of 

 natural science. From information courteously sent to us by Mr. 

 Charles Dabney, Acting Secretary of the Department, we are glad to 

 learn that matters are not quite so bad as they seemed to be. 



The law to which we referred excepts, as we said, copies required 

 " for Official use." Under this saving clause the officers of the 

 Department and of its bureaus are allowed a considerable number of 

 copies of each publication, and the term " official use " has been con- 

 strued very Hberally, so as to include exchanges. " Every person," 

 says Mr. Dabney, " who forwards to the Department of Agriculture 

 any pubHcation of value, or contributes anything to its library, will, 

 so long as the supply holds out, be placed upon a list of exchanges 

 for the bureau to which he contributes. All correspondents who 

 supply information, including scientific men who send their separata, 

 may be included among these exchanges at the discretion of the head 

 of the bureau. All others can secure these publications by registering 

 for them and paying the price thereof at the office of the Superinten- 

 dent of Documents, Union Building, Washington, D.C. 



"As a matter of fact, the Department of Agriculture makes, 

 under this construction of the law, a tolerably Uberai distribution of 

 its documents. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1896, it mailed 

 abroad pubHcations aggregating in weight 230,000 ounces, upon 

 which postage amounting to $1150.00 was paid. Five hundred 

 copies of the Experiment Station Record, which is one-tenth of the 

 entire edition, are mailed free to foreign exchanges, while to other 

 individuals it is supplied at $1.00 per annum or ten cents per 

 number." 



The only difficulty in the present arrangement is that the Super- 

 intendent of Documents will not accept cheques or postage stamps, 

 but must always have money orders. We learn that an effort will be 

 made to remedy this difficulty. Meanwhile the Americans can retort 

 that it is not pecuHar to America, since an American who wants a 

 publication of the British Government has to send a money order to 

 the publisher in order to obtain it. A pamphlet which costs an 

 Englishman twopence halfpenny, costs an American in this way 

 24 cents. 



Civilisation in the United States Congress. 

 We quote the following from the Daily Chronicle : — 



" The Indians of North America have a terrible reckoning against 

 the white man's civilisation, and it is disheartening to learn from 

 Washington that the bad business still goes on. By a beneficent law 

 passed nine years ago, an Indian woman marrying a white citizen 



