xiv BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



condition in which he found it. All of the matter wliich was 

 out of place on our shelves has been disposed of, either by send- 

 ing to the INIassiichusetts Agricultural College, the State Library 

 or the public document room, and we now have a compact work- 

 ing agricultural library. The correspondence of the year is the 

 largest of any year in the history of the Board ; more documents 

 have been printed and distributed, and various new lines of 

 work have been taken up and developed, so that the year has 

 been an exceedingly busy one. Miss Grace C. Hall of Somerville 

 was provisionally appointed assistant librarian on November 

 24, after having assisted us throughout the greater part of the 

 year, under authority from the Civil Service Commission, there 

 being no one on the list with the necessary qualifications for the 

 position. The assistant librarian, in addition to her duties in 

 connection with the library, is engaged in general office work, 

 in stenography, typewriting and multigraphing. This work 

 constantly increases and tends more and more to encroach upon 

 the library work. With present plans and tendencies it is only 

 a question of a short time when more help will be needed in the 

 office and another increase in the appropriation for extra clerical 

 assistance necessary. 



This year, for the first time, our appropriation for incidental 

 and contingent expenses in the office proved insufficient to 

 cover the necessary items, and bills had to be carried over into 

 the next fiscal year. This was the more remarkable as nothing 

 was expended for binding pamphlets and reports during the 

 year, an expense always borne from this appropriation. There 

 is much binding that should be done if the library is to be kept 

 up to the proper standard of usefulness, and there is no likeli- 

 hood that the amount required for stamps, supplies, etc., will 

 decrease. I have, therefore, in my estimates for the year asked 

 that the appropriation be increased from $1,100 to SI, 500 per 

 annum, and would recommend that the Board instruct its com- 

 mittee on legislation to appear before the Legislature and urge 

 the necessity for this increase. 



A matter has arisen recently that threatens to seriously cripple 

 the work of the Board, namely, the application of the chief of 

 the Cattle Bureau of the State Board of Agriculture for more 

 space, and the suggestion of the Scrgeant-at-Arms that the 



