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sources from which very considerable acquisitions might be 
expected. 
In accordance with these conditions, the following action 
has been taken along each of the lines specified. 
Purchases were limited to two classes of cases. First, to 
agreeing to pay the necessary expenses of obtaining such ex- 
hibits as might be secured through the unpaid services of 
friends and correspondents. In this way we have secured 
from Dr. Charles Mohr, of Mobile, an industrial exhibit of 
the turpentine industry. We have also entered into an agree- 
ment with Professor P. H. Mell, of the Alabama Polytechnic 
Institute, Auburn, Alabama, to supply an industrial exhibit 
illustrating the production and marketing of cotton, and with 
W. G. Forster, of Aden, to supply exhibits of the Zante 
currant and date industries. 
The other class of cases in which the purchase method was 
adopted was in case of special expeditions to otherwise inac- 
cessible regions, when we would employ the opportunity of 
having economic products collected for us. In this way an 
arrangement was made with Mr. Herbert H. Smith to furnish 
us products from the Santa Marta region of the U.S. of 
Colombia, and with a Mr. Fairbanks, to collect certain rare 
products in the neighborhood of Pernambuco, Brazil. 
The exchange method was regarded as of necessity our 
principal reliance for obtaining exhibits of a general charac- 
ter, and a special plan was devised, based upon the known 
eagerness of all institutions to secure material of absolutely 
authenticated origin, the greater portion of that ordinarily 
coming to hand lacking this element in some way. It was 
decided to secure all our material for exchange through 
special collection by persons having had sufficient botanical 
training, and to accompany each specimen of economic mate- 
rial with a herbarium specimen taken from the same plant or 
group of plants, and also by full records of the circumstances 
of collection. As no provision had yet been made for the 
continuous employment of a collector, the temporary services 
of Professor A. A. Tyler, of Syracuse University, were ob- 
