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_ REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER ; OF AGRICULTURE. | 48 
di eases that our space will afford. The clerks above the basement 
‘yp re subject at all times to the sickening odors which proeeed from 
chemicals and chemical analyses below, and are subject as well to 
4 ‘the additional source of danger from fire and explosion; and because 
~ of the presence of these clerks in the building it is impossible to in- 
ia vestigate i in the laboratory in the attic some of the common diseases 
_ vo! animals which are contagious and dangerous to human life. 
a LIBRARY. 
Every year since the establishment of the Department Congress 
has amnually appropriated money for the maintenance of the libary, 
_ for the completion of series, and for the purchase of scientific and 
_ other works, and yet the space for the storage of this vast and valu- 
_ able collection remains the same as it was twenty years ago. <A well- 
_ equipped library, systematically arranged and properly conducted, 
-is an imperative necessity to any scientific institution—it is the fuel 
to the fire. For years the Department’s works have been crowded 
into a room too small for the purpose, with no suitable place for 
preservation from insects and dust or against loss and confusion, 
always in anticipation that it would be deemed wise on the part of 
| Congress to relieve a condition of affairs here which in ordinary busi- 
_ ness would be corrected without delay. I have been compelled to 
recognize these dangers, and in order to better systematize the li- 
. brary and to protect valuable public property, much of which can not 
be replaced, I have removed the museum objects from exhibition in 
_ the main building to another portion of the grounds, and am now 
_ engaged in removing the library to that floor, where it will have | 
| 
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abundant room for many years to come. With a new laboratory 
_ building, and with this change, the Department will be temporarily 
_ relieved of the present pressure for room, though the erection of a 
_ new and properly arranged Department building of a less inflamma- 
ble character than the present one would still seem to be the part of 
‘wisdom. : 
WOOL. AND COTTON. 
It is gratifying to note that the report on wool, to which T referred 
. in my first annual report, has been printed, and is now in process of 
| distribution. ft is an elaborate, valuable, and interesting report. 
_ In this connection I beg to renew the recommendation made in my 
last report relative to an incomplete and unpublished investigation 
upon the subject of cotton, of similar tenor and purpose. In re- 
_ sponse to a demand that other fibers than wool should be studied, 
the Department in 1883 and in 1884 caused to be collected for inves- 
tigation a series of samples of cotton, as follows: 
; (1) Cotton produced under different known conditions of seed, 
soil, climate, and culture in all parts of the great cotton belt of the 
United States ; 
