The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-03
THE GOVERNMENTS BOOKS.
The "Six Best, Are Turned Out by
Department of Agriculture.

Washington Letter. in New York Post.
A good many congressman were piqued by
the announcement, made inconspicuously
In a permanent bulletin of the Department
of Agriculture recently, that certain of its
most desirable publications are not held
by the department for general distribution,
and that citizens who wanted copies should
write to their senators or representatives.
The notice did not mention the fact that the
quota is limited, and members have feared
that the allotment would be exhausted to
the detriment of those who could really
make the best use of these books.
The honor of turning out the "six best
selling books" in the governments diverse
assortment remains pretty continuously
with the Department of Agriculture, al
though some noteworthy outgiving of an
other branch of the government may occa-
sionally break into the favored list. The
report of L. c. Terrell, the superintendent
of documents, who conducts the great book
store which the government has maintained
since 1885, gives the following list of pub
locations which enjoyed the largest sale:
Department yearbooks, 1858; special report
on diseases of the horse, 1900; special re-
port on diseases of cattle, 1904; bulletin
Oh SAuScuSs osOOls OulltIln Oh the money Dee.
2,lS5; chemical bulletin No. As, 1896; bulletin
on chemica composition of American food
materials, 1890; bulletin on timber. 1.SO9;
primer of forestry, Part l., Loss.
Almost ridiculously small as these figures
are by comparison with those blaZoned
forth in private publishers announcements,
tney are probably a very much more trust
worthy indication of popular interest. The
government reports and bulletins are, in
the hrst place, entirely unadvertised, and
L 10 m nOhn6UC fnfnRnUf 20 fnvaEk
of them with a fictitious Importance. Fur
thermore, 1t must be remembered that all
these are books issued primarily for free
dlStrlbutlon, but which so many thousand
people wanted so badly that they were ac-
tually willing 10 pay for them. AS human
nature is constituted, the prosperous farmer
VIII hesitate much longer before paying so
cents for a really valuable government book
which his neighoor, by writing early to the
Hon Mr.. So-and-So, secured for nothing,
than over paying 81 in installments for a
morocco-bound and illustrated manual of
etiquette. 1t may be depended upon that
the people who bought these publications
really wanted them, and the reason for
wanting them Is usually plain enough.
The demand for the ginseng bulletin OBJ
viously was stimulated by the very wide
exploitation of the culture of this root.
which was a feature of the advertising
pages of last summer magazines. The
Department OF Agriculture receives an av-
erage of twenty-five letters a day from Cit
lzehs VINO want TO try their hand at gin
Seng culture, and the information put into
printed form has given the best answer TO
such questions. The interest in food
analyses is undoubtedly a part of the pres
ent popular fondness for computing the
percentages of carbohydrates. fats. and pro-
Horse Book and Cow Book are those
which ii has been hardest to supply. The
Horse Book especially is wanted just as
much ~ the city stables keepers as by
farmers in the country. 1t does not afford
the usual opportunity for trading between
tpnnpnf Of HNRrn1nnfG hnuvavar y
by offering bundles of documents in ex-
change, to secure from outside booksellers,
as well as congressman, about 1000 copies
or the Horse Book and 500 of the Cow
Book Even this was not enough to sup
ply the demand. Mr.. Ferrel says that two
or three times as many of the bulletins
could have been sold If a sufficient supply
had been on hand. He estimates that he
was able to fill only about 10 per cent. of
the orders for agricultural publications this
year Inc superintendent is strongly in
favor of a law which Will authorize him
to order from the Government Printing Of
flee extra editions for sale after the first
quotas are exhausted.
Something like 5000 titles are for sale
at cost, but the governments method of
mercial publisher. All these books. it is
argued, would have been issued anyhow,
even If sales were never thought of. There
fore the composition and making of the
p~lates-among a publishers largest items
are not inquired IN the cost at all. There
are no royalties or commissions, and the
puiCAdSel ledlly pays only the pare cost or
paper, ending and presswork. The bulky
F! yearbooks, for instance. are sold at from
90 to - cents; the live stock books already
referred tO-which. by a booksellers stand
ards, would certainly retail at several dol
ars-are listed II % cents; and the bulletins
usually cost from ; to 10 cents each.
To find out with absolute completeness
what the government mas published on
any particular subject will perhaps never
be possible. for the reason that the pieces
of printed matter put forth in the first thir-
ty years OF the governments existence
were not numbered I'm series and even i'm
the most compete collections there is no
way of knowing how many omissions there
may be. Even for the material in the pres
ent numbered issues, or in the collections
of yearly state papers there is still no COM
prehenisve general index, but good progress
is being made in this direction. Within
a few years there will probably be one in
dex in the style OF a dictionary catalogue
TO all available government publications
from the first Congress.