No. 4.] REPORT OF LIBRARIAN. 259 



for back volumes of the " Agriculture of Massachusetts," and 

 it has been the practice to grant such requests whenever pos- 

 sible. The past year was no exception to the rule, and the 

 librarian found considerable employment in answering such 

 calls and in replying to requests for information on various 

 subjects, as well as in keeping the run of the many publica- 

 tions received from time to time in exchange. 



One of the pleasantest of these requests was from a gentle- 

 man in Natal, South Africa, who stated that some years ago 

 he received from the late American Consul in Natal — his 

 grandfather — a copy of the twenty-eighth annual report 

 of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture (1880), and who 

 further stated that " of so much value has this interesting 

 publication been to me and other farmers in Natal, that I 

 am venturing to ask you whether you will be willing to 

 confer a great kindness on us by forwarding me the subse- 

 quent publications (or such of them as you can spare) from 

 1881 to 1897." Certain volumes were sent the gentleman, 

 and in his letter acknowledging their receipt he wrote : 

 "These indeed bespeak great advancement in your agri- 

 cultural industry since 1881. It is my intention to make 

 public in Natal much of the valuable information con- 

 tained in the volumes you have sent me." 



Another interesting communication was from the man- 

 aging editor of an agricultural paper published in a neigh- 

 boring State. This gentleman delivered a lecture before the 

 Board of Agriculture at Taunton about a year ago, and in 

 his letter he wrote as follows: "I would like to ask you 

 about how large a circulation you have for your annual 

 report. It is a singular thing that I am receiving a great 

 many letters from various parts of Massachusetts from per- 

 sons who say that they have read the report of my little talk 

 at Taunton. I have also a letter from a man in Montana, 

 which came as a result of reading this report, and I would 

 really like to know about how large a circulation you give, 

 in order to call out so many letters." 



Some work has been done on the card catalogue of sub- 

 jects referred to in the last report of the librarian, and there 

 are now on hand 1,080 such cards. The subject index of 

 the literature of agricultural experiment stations and kindred 



