No. 4.] REPORT OF LIBRARIAN. 197 



Report of the Librarian and Curator. 



[Adopted at the Annual Meeting, Jan. 12, 1898.] 



To the Secretary of (he Slate Board of Agriculture. 



Sir: — It is provided in article 3 of chapter III. of the 

 by-laws of the Board of Agriculture, that "the secretary 

 shall appoint one of his clerks librarian and curator, who 

 shall act under his directions." 



The appointment of the present incumbent of this oflSce 

 was made Feb. 6, 1894, since which date as much attention 

 has been given by him to the building up of the office library 

 as circumstances would permit. 



History of the Library. 



The State Board of Agriculture was established by an act 

 of the Legislature of 1852, and was assigned rooms in the 

 basement of the State House. Books of reference began to 

 accumulate, and soon the nucleus of an office library was 

 formed. The first reference to such a library, in the volume 

 known as the " Agriculture of Massachusetts," is in the sec- 

 retary's report for 1857 ; the reference being as follows : 

 "The agricultural library connected with the office of the 

 secretary of the Board has now become the largest and most 

 valuable collection of the kind in New England, and is prob- 

 ably the most extensive in the United States. A complete 

 catalogue* is to be found in the Appendix, and is now pub- 

 lished for the use of those who are active in creating similar 

 agricultural libraries in the various towns of the Common- 

 wealth." 



*This catalogue describes 844 volumes, 692 of which constituted the library 

 proper, 125 the library of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, and 

 27 belonged to the secretary of the Board, and were on deposit for public use under 

 the same regulations as the offlce library. 



