No. 4-] REPORT OF LIBRARIAN. 257 



REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN. 



[Adopted at the Annual Meeting, Jan. 10, 1899.] 



To the Secretary of the Stale Board of Agriculture. 



Sir: — In presenting the second report of the librarian, 

 it is desired to refer briefly to the recommendation made in 

 the first report, namely, " That there be prepared for pub- 

 lication in the ' Agriculture of Massachusetts ' a catalogue, 

 giving titles, authors and other customary items," which 

 recommendation was adopted by the Board at its annual 

 meeting, held in January last ; the Board further voting 

 "That the catalogue be published in the 'Agriculture of 

 Massachusetts ' which is published next after the completion 

 of the catalogue." 



The work of the librarian the past year has been largely 

 the perfecting of the classification of the library and the 

 preparing of the above-mentioned catalogue, which is now 

 respectfully submitted as an Appendix to + his report. 



A brief history of the library was given in the librarian's 

 report of a year ago, and reference was there made to the 

 only catalogue of the library heretofore prepared, and which 

 was printed in the "Agriculture of Massachusetts," 1857, 

 pages i-xxix of the Appendix.* 



Probably the first original treatise on American forming 

 was the work of Charles Varlo, Esq., of Philadelphia, pub- 

 lished in that city in 1785. This work is in two volumes, 

 and is entitled, "A new system of husbandry from many 

 years' experience." A book often referred to as being the 

 first original American work on agriculture is entitled, 

 *' Arator, being a series of agricultural essays, practical and 

 political." Its author was John Taylor, and it was printed 

 at Petersburg, Va., in 1818. f 



• Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1897, page 197. 



t Board Bulletin No. 7, library number, season of 1898, Maine State Board 

 of Agriculture. 



