PREFACE 



Though next to the youngest of the Executive Departments of the 

 United States Government, and its work having- been for 3'ears impeded 

 b}^ lack of interest on the part of Congress, the publications of the 

 Agriculture Department rank second to none in number and use- 

 fulness. 



From a doubtful experiment, with an annual report as its only pub- 

 lication, the Department has developed into a great publishing office, 

 the output of which is eagerly sought by those engaged in agricultural 

 inquir}'. 



The constant changes in the personnel of the various divisions com- 

 posing the Department, the growing need and gradual extension of 

 investigations, necessitated in a degree, and at least satisfactoril}^ 

 explain, the otherwise incomprehensible peculiarities and confused 

 methods which characterize the publications of the various bureaus 

 and oflSces and of the Department as a whole. 



FORMER LISTS. 



As earlj^ as 1867 a general index was made to the annual reports 

 from 1862 to that date (Al. 1:867, p. 473), and a still more elaborate 

 index, 1837-1876 (including the agricultural reports made through the 

 Patent Office from 1837-1861), was issued in 187U (A1.8:ll:), with a 

 supplement bringing the work down to 188.5, printed in 1886 (A1.8: 12); 

 ])ut it was not until 1S91 that a list of the miscellaneous publications 

 appeared (A1.S:55), and that included only the pul)li(ati()ns for the 

 five years from 1889 to 1893, being simph' a consolidated reprint of 

 the lists which had been a feature of the annual reports of the Secre- 

 taiT for those years. 



In 1896 another index to the annual reports, 1837-1893, was printed 

 (A21.3:l), in the preface to which the former attempts to index the 

 reports arc characterized as "so unsatisfactory for the purpose for 

 which they were designed as to have fallen into almost complete dis- 



