22 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Domestic Animals. 



Birds. 



Bees. 



Insects Beneficial and Injurious to Agriculture. 



Animal Pests. 



Fertilizers. 



Agricultural Chemistry and Physics. 



Rural Sociology. 



Agricultural Education. 



Agricultural Conservation. 



Forestry. 



5. New books, as they are needed, will be purchased by the State 

 Library, so far as its means will permit. 



6. The newspaper files will not be changed under this plan. 



7. Current publications which come to the Department will be looked 

 over by the Director of Information, and attention of directors will be 

 called to any publication that seems to bear on their work. 



Subject-Matter of Department Publications. 



The precursors of the Department of Agriculture date from 

 the early days of the last century, and outdate the Agricul- 

 tural College, with its intramural and extramural teaching, and 

 the Agricultural Experiment Station. Partly historically and 

 partly from agricultural needs it came about that the Depart- 

 ment publications covered the whole field of agriculture. 



The law establishing the Massachusetts Department of 

 Agriculture is very comprehensive. Under it the Department 

 is authorized to do almost anything for the promotion of 

 agriculture within the Commonwealth. The acts establishing 

 the Massachusetts Agricultural College and Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station make teaching the function of the one, and 

 the investigation of problems bearing upon the agriculture of 

 the State the function of the other. It is the purpose of the 

 Department of Agriculture to work in thorough co-operation 

 with all other State agencies, and to avoid duplication of effort. 

 It functions chiefly along the broad lines of constructive ad- 

 ministration and the execution of the laws pertaining to agri- 

 culture. 



As a historical sinvival, as a war measure, and because of 

 the demand for and appreciation of publications telling how 

 to grow crops, and the like, the Department had up to May 

 last published instructional books that come within the field of 

 the Extension Service of the Agricultural College, and also 

 the Agricultural College published some books that entered 



