) 
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. . 
