Excerpt from Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1905 In view of the recent somewhat active discussion with regard to Government publications more especially annual reports, and in view of the fact that, under the law providing for its issue, the Yearbook is designated as Part II of the Annual Report of the Secretary of Agriculture, it may be of interest to indicate the circumstances which have given to the Yearbook its present special character. The publication of the Yearbook is called for by an act providing for the public printing and binding, and the distribution of public documents, approved January 12, 1895, which is quoted on the opposite page. This act was the result of a careful and protracted investigation by the Joint Committee on Printing of the Senate and the House of Representatives concerning the character of public documents and the manner of distributing them. Of the publications issued under the law then existing, the Annual Report of the Department of Agri culture was necessarily the 'object of special consideration, owing to the very large edition, copies. It was recognized that in its old form the Annual Report of the Department contained a large amount of administrative detail of interest to comparatively few read ers outside of Congress, and consequently quite superfluous in a volume intended for widespread popular distribution. Besides these administrative details, the Annual Report was made the vehicle for a considerable amount of scientific matter. This matter was of interest chiefly to specialists in some one but rarely in all of the lines of scientific work pursued in the Department. Moreover, the growth of the Department and the creation of new 0 ices threatened to increase greatly the bulk of the volume. It was, therefore, wisely determined to divide the Annual Report of the Department into two parts, sepa rately bound. The first part, known as the Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture, and issued in an edition of 00pies, contains, first, the personal report of the Secretary of Agriculture, addressed to the Presi dent, and, second, a detailed report from each division chief addressed to the Secretary. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.