340 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



According to the record of accessions, the total number of books 

 and pamphlets accessioned by the Library up to July 1, 1919, was 

 156,648. From this number should be deducted 5,910 volumes which 

 were discarded during the fiscal year 1915 and 589 which were dis- 

 carded in the past four fiscal years, leaving a balance of 150,149 

 books and pamphlets in the Library on July 1, 1919. 



Among the notable purchases of the year were Matthews's Birds of 

 Australia and Volume I of Beebe's Monograph of the Pheasants. Con- 

 ditions have not been favorable for acquiring old and rare desiderata, 

 but a few such books have been obtained from England and one ship- 

 ment from The Hague. Among old herbals the Library has obtained 

 Brunfels (1530-32), Gerarde (1597), a Criiyde-boeck of Dodoens 

 (1563), the Greate Herball (1561), and Egenolph's Plantarum, 

 Arborum, Fruticum, et Herbarum Effigies (1562). In gardening lit- 

 erature Thomas Hill's Gardener's Labyrinth (1577), Miller's Dic- 

 tionary, 6th ed. (1752), and Eeid, The Scots Gardner (1766), are 

 notable. Other interesting items are John Mitchell's Dissertatio 

 brevis de Principiis Botanicorum, cum Appendice Plantarum in Vir- 

 ginia Observatarum (1769) a photostat copy, Detmer's Botanische 

 Wanderungen in Brasilien (1897), and Vigier, Historia das Plantas 

 de Europa (Lion. 1718), which is an early version in Portuguese of 

 the "Petit Bauhin." . _ 



The Library was the recipient during the year of a large number 

 of volumes, which were formerly the property of the Rhode Island 

 Societ}^ for the encouragement of domestic industry. These were 

 presented by the estate of Frederick E. Perkins through Mr. Charles 

 R. Stark, of Providence, R. I. 



CATALOGUING AND CLASSIFICATION. 



The record of the material classified and catalogued during the 

 year is as follows: 2,020 volumes, 459 pamphlets, 3,549 serials and 

 continuations, and 17 maps and charts, making a total of 6,045, a 

 decrease of 1,778 as compared with the previous year. In addition 

 to the complete cataloguing of the above-mentioned items, author 

 cards were made for 273 pamphlets of less importance and 2,498 

 " reprints." 



There were added to the main (dictionary) catalogue 21,881 cards, 

 and 3,118 were withdrawn, making a net addition of 18,763, a de- 

 crease of 3,620 compared with the previous year. The main (dic- 

 tionary) catalogue now contains approximately 410,000 cards. 



Tlie number of titles prepared during the year for printing by the 

 Library of Congress in what is known as the "Agr" series was as 

 follows: Cards for accessions, 512; cards for Department publica- 

 tions, 656 ; total, 1,168, an increase of 108 over the previous year. The 

 total number of titles prepared by the Library since 1902, in which 

 year the printing of cards was begun, now amounts to 31,266. 



The amount of uncatalogued material on hand July 1, 1919, was as 

 follows: 368 volumes, 648 pamphlets, 943 continuations, and 6 maps 

 a large increase over the previous year, due to the loss of assistants 

 who were experienced in cataloguing. 



