after the labor of collection, preservation, determination, and 

 systematic classification is all done, will take all the time of 

 one assistant for about a month. 



Our work of the past two years has been greatly hampered 

 by the insufficiency of our library fund, and the loss of valuable 

 assistants with years of experience on our subjects and train- 

 ing in our methods, and more useful here than any one else 

 could be for a long time to come. This loss was due simply to 

 inadequate provision for their salaries. If this work is to con- 

 tinue on its present basis, it is indispensable that our library 

 appropriation be put back to what it was two years ago, and 

 that sufficient allowance be made for salaries to enable me to 

 hold good assistants in competition with experiment stations 

 and other institutions offering employment to able and well- 

 trained young men. 



Respectfully submitted, 



S. A. FORBES, 



Director of Laboratory. 

 December 31, 1890. 



