New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 9 



chemical department, three are engaged in horticultural work, 

 two are entomologists, one is giving attention to poultry culture 

 and other matters pertaining to animal industry, one is studying 

 plant diseases, and one has the immediate charge of the farm and 

 is superintendent of labor. Two of the staff are detailed for work 

 at the Branch Station in the Second Judicial Department, which 

 is located at Jamaica, Long Island. The preponderance of chem- 

 ists over those in any other single line of work is explained by 

 the fact that the Station is now analyzing six or seven hundred 

 samples of fertilizers annually. It should be remarked that 

 there is scarcely any line of investigation in which the Station 

 engages where the aid of the chemist is not required. 



Clerical and labor force. — Three persons are at the present em- 

 ployed as clerical assistants to the scientific staff, and the jani- 

 tors, dairyman, poultryman, forcing house assistant, gardeners, 

 herdsmen, teamsters, mailing assistant, and watchman number 

 about sixteen more. Besides these permanent employees, day 

 laborers are hired during the summer as they are needed. The 

 lines of work carried on are so varied and the details are so elab- 

 orate that a large labor force is a necessity. This is especially 

 the case where so extensive a fruit plant is to be managed in an 

 experimental way. 



The library. — One of the most essential aids to scientific re- 

 search is a fairly complete record of what has previously been 

 accomplished. Few persons can afford the private ownership of 

 a scientific library sufficiently extensive to meet the needs of the 

 investigator, but it is nevertheless important that he shall have 

 access to the data which other workers have collected. 



For these reasons it is highly desirable that the library of the 

 Station shall be made much more complete in the literature of 

 investigation. Although it has recently received valuable addi- 

 tions, it is still deficient in material and is without proper classi- 

 fication and arrangement. Outside of recent purchases, the 

 larger part of the books contained in the library is of compara- 

 tively little value as a record of recent scientific research in those 

 lines related to agriculture. 



