44 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Rearrangement of the Office. 



The Department and its predecessor, the Board of Agricul- 

 ture, had for many years occupied Room 1.36, State House, 

 and a small room opening into it, the latter being used by the 

 secretary of the Board or the Commissioner as a private office. 

 These rooms had become very much crowded and it was im- 

 mediately evident that the Department should have more 

 space and should rearrange its office in order to secure better 

 working conditions and to make its files, records and papers 

 more easily accessible. As a part of the rearrangement of the 

 offices in the building the Department was allotted a store- 

 room off the corridor, near its main entrance, which had pre- 

 viously been used by the Department of Public Health, and 

 two rooms formerly occupied by the Commissioner of Animal 

 Industry. By moving its inactive files and its publications 

 into the new storeroom, and by tearing out the wooden parti- 

 tions which separated the rooms used by the Commissioner of 

 Animal Industry for offices, a better storage arrangement for 

 publications was secured, and an additional office room nearly 

 two-thirds as large as its old office room was added to the 

 space occupied by the Department. A small room formerly 

 used as a part of the entrance corridor to the offices of the 

 Board of Conciliation and Arbitration was also allotted to 

 the Department and arranged as a library. These changes in 

 the arrangement of the office, with the additional space and the 

 elimination of a large quantity of useless papers and books, 

 made the material carried by the Department much easier to 

 store, and also increased the amount of space available for 

 storage purposes. A room formerly used partly for storage 

 has been rearranged into a machinery and supply room, ad- 

 ditional space being secured by tearing out shelving on three 

 sides. 



The work of renovating the office was completed by moving 

 the furniture so as to bring the desks of the principal officers 

 near the windows, by cleaning and painting the walls and 

 ceilings, installing a new lighting system, and replacing the car- 

 pet on the main office floor with linoleum. As a result of this 

 work the Department now has a much more commodious of- 



