The progressive farmer., 1901-08-13
The Thinkers.
UNCLE SANS FREE LIBRARY.

L
years ago to be member OF sur
veying party engaged in locating the
line of new railway through an or
binary agricultural community. We
boarded with the farmers along the
line, some times remaining Week
or more at one house. 1t was seldom
that we lodged at any place which
afforded much reading matter. The
local newspaper and the family Bible
were generally in evidence, and
will confess that never in my life
searched the Scriptures so diligently
as I did on that trip.
For one never to be-forgotten
week was confined to farm house
with a sprained ankle, and expert
enoed all the pangs of literary hun
ger. After I had exhausted the con-
tents of a. file of alleged literary
papers published in Maine I CHANGED
to notice a case well filed with
Agricultural Reports. The black
binding and gilt lettering we're very
familiar to me, as they had been an
nuaI visitors to my fathers house
through the courtesy of the Con-
gresham from our district But as
our home was well supplied with
books, seldom opened one of the
reports Being fairly gorged with
the very light literature of the Maine
variety, 1 took down one of the vol
umes, resolved to absorb it's contents
as a counter-irritant to the love-
laden pabulum had been indulg1ng
in. The first article that attracted
my attention was one detailing the
history of the trOtting horse IN
America, which was written in so
enterprising style by writer ap-
parently we'll versed in his subject
that l read it a second time. read
several others of the once-despised
volumes during the days that fol-
lowed, and found that they contained
much information that was valuable
to one interested in scientific farm
ing.
An article in one of the reports on
mushrooms something [ was always
interested in-so caught my fancy
that resolved to procure the volume
containing it, and monograph on
the same subject referred to in the
article. When returned home I
met our Congressman and asked him
to have the publications sent to my
address if he thought they were still
in print. He informed me that it
was not only possibl, to have that
particular volume and pamphlet sent
me, but also many of those which
had been printed for years back, as
we'll as many interesting and in
structive reports and bulletins issued
by various departments of the gov
ernment. There are, he informed
me, thousands of volumes of valuable
documents which had been printed
at great expense mildewing in the
Easements of the public buildings at
Washington. The reason he assigned
for this was that the people are un-
der the impression that these publ
cations are obtainable only through
Senators and Representatives,, who
bestow them upon a favored few
While members of Congress always
cheerfully order them sent to their
constituents when requested, yet
many of them can be secured just as
readily by writing directly to the
Secretary of Agriculture for those
pertaining to his department, and to
the heads of bureaus having charge
of the publication and distri button
of reports and documents of any
other character.
Following the advice of the Con-
gresham, wrote the Secretary of
Agriculture, and after few days
volumes came dropping into the
postoffice to my address, and con-
tinued until / had library that
would be "well spring of pleasure"
in some bookless farm home whose
owner did not feel able to invest in
books that would keep him informed
of the progress that agriculture was
making.
Determined that his sons of the
soil should be provided with the best
thought of the world in solving
many problems of farming, Uncle
Sam has employed an army of scien-
fists and practical agriculturists to