CIV 



REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 



SALE OF DEPARTMENT PUBLICATIONS. 



Through the courtesy of the Superintendent of Documents of the 

 Office of the Public Printer I am able to present a report of the sale 

 of Government publications, which shows a very large and increasing 

 demand for the publications of this Department, even when the same 

 have to be paid for. This fact suggests the possible — I might almost say 

 probable — solution of the great difficulty which now attends our efforts 

 to achieve an effectual and equitable distribution of our publications. 

 The following table shows the number of Government publications 

 sold and the amounts received therefor during the past four years : 



Number of publications sold and amount received. 



IMPROVEMENT OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



In the enforced economy in our publication work, owing to the 

 limited funds at our disposal, the work of illustration has unduly suf- 

 fered. It has been treated more as a nonessential in a publication, 

 however desirable it might be. In connection with the work of this 

 Department, illustrations, though not always essential, are in many 

 cases, when properly conceived and executed, extremely useful. The 

 rule laid down in this branch of the work is to exclude merely orna- 

 mental pictures, and to confine illustrations to such as are desirable 

 and calculated to facilitate the reader's apprehension of the text. It 

 is also of the first importance that such illustrations should be the 

 best of their kind. It has not been possible for the last two years 

 to fulfill either of these conditions, and I have deemed it desirable to 

 include in the appropriations for next year a special sum sufficient to 

 pay the necessary force of artists and draftsmen, and to provide for 

 a certain amount of illustration work over and above what we can 

 afford to include in the regular printing fund. 



NEED OF ENLARGED QUARTERS. 



The urgent need of a new building is nowhere more forcibly exem- 

 plified than in the objectionable conditions under which it is necessary 

 to carry on the work of this Division. Crowded and inadequate quar- 

 ters assigned to the Division here and there — some on the main floor 

 and some in the attic of the main building, others in widely separated 



