180 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1365 



"We have sufficient precedeace from other 

 regions to guide us, as the total extinction of 

 the yellow moccasin flower in Center county, 

 Pennsylvania, and the extirpation of the 

 pitcher plant, fringed gentian, azalea and wild 

 lilies from many localities. We should profit 

 from the experience of others and treat our 

 wild flora as a natural resource which should 

 be neither squandered nor destroyed, but 

 should rather be treated in a sane and thought- 

 ful manner, so that it may be appreciated 

 and enjoyed by those who follow us. 



Albert A. Hansen 



A SUGGESTION FOR MAKING OUR 



SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS MORE 



USEFUL AND OUR POST-OFFICES 



A CENTER OF INFORMATION 



It is evident to all persons who have 

 thought about the matter that our federal 

 and state scientific publications are not as 

 widely used or as well known as their great 

 value to the public warrants. There are two 

 principal reasons for this: iirst, because it is 

 difficult to promptly obtain them and, second, 

 because compai-atively few people know of 

 their existence as the government has found 

 no effective way of advertising them. 



Sportsmen and scientists, for example, 

 frequently find that the guides of a region of 

 which an excellent topographic map has been 

 made by the government are not aware of the 

 existence of the map although it would be of 

 great value to them in their work. It is 

 perhaps conservative to say that most auto- 

 mobilists do not even know what topographic 

 maps are, and that, when they do know, they 

 can not obtain them unless their tour is 

 planned long in advance. The writer has 

 never but once seen a topographic map in the 

 home of a farmer, notwithstanding the fact 

 that it would be a source of great pleasure 

 and profit to him. If a publishing house had 

 issued maps of such excellence it would have 

 expended thousands of dollars in advertising 

 them so that, if possible, every home might 

 have a map of its own neighborhood. As a 

 matter of fact the expense of publishing these 



maps is so great that no private concern 

 could make them for sale at a profit. Never- 

 theless, after they have been published, no 

 effort is made to let the people whose taxes 

 paid for them leam of them and of their 

 value. 



A few examples from the writer's experi- 

 ence — which can be duplicated by many per- 

 sons — will illustrate the characteristic in- 

 accessibility of our federal and state publica- 

 tions. Many times he has wanted the topo- 

 graphic maps of a region but was unable to 

 obtain them because he could not wait until 

 he received tliem from Washington. At Zion 

 l^ational Park, Utah, this past svunmer not 

 only were no topographic maps for sale but 

 none could be consulted. At Uvalde, Texas, 

 there are some interesting volcanic necks 

 which are mapped and described in a United 

 States Geological Survey Folio but when the 

 writer stopped off to study them he found 

 that no folio was available and, as far as he 

 could leam, no one in the region owned a 

 copy. At Ardmore, Okla., he wished to con- 

 sult the geological literature of the region and 

 found that the Carnegie Library has neither 

 the publications of its own state nor the ex- 

 cellent United States Geological Survey Pro- 

 fessional paper of the region. Many similar 

 instances could be cited. 



The biological and botanical publications 

 are equally inaccessible. The archeologieal 

 publications dealing with the Cliff Dwellings, 

 the prehistoric ruins of New Mexico and 

 Arizona, the Mound Builders of Ohio, and 

 elsewhere, might almost as well never have 

 been published as far as their usefulness to 

 the visitor who has not had time to secure 

 them from Washington is concerned. 



The only justification for this state of 

 affairs is that one can obtain the government 

 publications in Washington and the state pub- 

 lications at the state capitols by writing for 

 them ; but it should always be added " if one 

 has the time to wait for them." 



The writer proposes two remedies: 



1. That every first, second, and third class 

 I)Ost-office shall be provided with a framed, 

 printed list of the federal and state publica- 



