32 EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



ment of agriculture and office of experiment stations, to news- 

 papers and libraries and to individuals who have especially 

 requested them. 



The circulars which we issue are not sent out to a regular 

 mailing list. They are prepared for use in connection with the 

 correspondence of the station, for it is by the use of such cir- 

 culars only that we find it possible to give the full information 

 and advice needed by those consulting us by letter. Any of 

 these circulars, however, will be sent on special request. 



The newspapers of the State receive an abstract of all im- 

 portant publications, and as a rule we find them ready to pub- 

 lish such abstracts. 



Mailing Lists. — A large amount of work is required in 

 keeping our mailing lists accurate and thoroughly alive. We 

 are constantly dropping names and as constantly adding new 

 ones. The tendency is towards an in(;rcase, although just at 

 present our total is a few hundred less than shown in the last 

 annual report, owing to the fact that some lists not previously 

 revised for a number of years have undergone very careful 

 revision resulting in dropping a number of addresses which 

 had undoubtedly been for some time dead. The following 

 table shows the nature of the lists which we maintain and the 

 number of addresses in the several classes: — 



Residents of Massachusetts, 12,651 



Residents of other States, 2,438 



Residents of foreign countries, 242 



Newspapers, 518 



Libraries, ........... 30G 



Exchanges, 151 



Cranberry growei^s, 1,395 



Beekeepers, . . . . . . . . • • • 2,866 



Meteorological, 389 



Total, 20,956 



Correspondence. — During the year 1011 the number of let- 

 ters of inquiry answered l>y members of the station staff has 

 been about 12,000. This is a somewhat smaller nund)er than 



