288 DEPAKTMENTAL REPORTS. 



should also provide that all free distribution to individuals should be 

 stopped; that all of our publications be placed on sale at the cost of 

 preparing, presswork, and binding, with a small percentage added for 

 handling, and that only emergency circulars be given a free miscel- 

 laneous distribution. 



With the law thus amended no possible excuse could exist for the 

 restriction as to the number of copies of the publication issued, a 

 restriction which at present declares that no report, publication, or 

 document shall be printed in excess of 1,000 of each in any one fiscal 

 year without authorization therefor by Congress, the onlj^ excej)tion 

 to this limitation being the annual reports of the heads of Departments 

 and publications authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture when the 

 same shall not exceed 100 octavo pages. The securing of the authori- 

 zation of Congress is difficult. Even when Congress is in session an 

 authorization is usually obtainable only by unanimous consent, and 

 during many months, when Congress is not in session, such authori- 

 zation, of course, is impossible. This restriction therefore seems 

 to seriouslj' hamper the work of the Department, and very often 

 works great injustice to many persons, who have, at considerable 

 expenditure of time, and in some cases of money, assisted the Depart- 

 ment in securing the data for a publication. These persons do this 

 usually with the imj^lied understanding that their efforts will be 

 recognized at least with a copy of the j^ublication to which they thus 

 contribute. It is not riglit that they should be disappointed. Y\"ith 

 the gratuitous distribution of public documents restricted in accord- 

 ance with the recommendations made above, there should be no need 

 for this restriction, as it is manifestly proper that certain public insti- 

 tutions should receive each a copy of everj^ publication issued, and 

 the general public should be entitled to as many as it feels disposed 

 to purchase. 



THE YEARBOOK. 



The grave inconvenience to which the Department is subjected by 

 the small number of copies, in proi)ortion to the total edition, of the 

 Yearbook placed at the disposal of the Secretarj", inakes necessary an 

 appeal to Congress for a more liberal allowance. In the days when 

 the total number issued of this ijublication was but 300,000, and when 

 the work of this Department was not one-fourth of what it now is, 

 30,000 copies were placed at the disposal of the head of this Depart- 

 ment, then Commissioner of Agriculture. To-day, witli 500,000 

 copies issued yearly, the same number, 30,000 copies, is i)laced at the 

 disposal of the Secretar}^ It seems hardly necessary to add anj^thing 

 to this comj)arison. Fifty thousand copies, at least, are needed for the 

 use of the Sec "ctary of Agriculture. 



UNIFORMITY OF STYLE IN PUBLICATIONS. 



Some ineans should be adopted to secure uniformity of stjde in the 

 publicat ions of the Department, so as to obviate the present con fusion, 

 annoyance, and expense res\ilting from individual preferences as 

 regards orthography, capitalization, use of italics, comi)ounding of 

 words, etc., in the bulletins and reports of the various Bureaus, Divi- 

 sions, and Offices. Unfortunately, tlie idiosyncrasies are too often 

 not indicated in the manuscripts submitted, but are insisted upon 

 after the matter is in proof, and the changes involve considerable 

 expense, frequently amounting to one-third of the original cost of 



