When Miss Barnett Had to Drop Any Other Task, However

With such a small staff it was impossible to have much specialization, and every- S one was liable to be called off from everything else in emergericies. There were times . when Miss Barnett had to drop any other task, however important, to spend hours or days filling in names or dates in the elaborately engraved letters of recommendation or similar exalted documents issued by the Secretary of Agriculture. Her script was worthy of such honorable papers, and it seemed to me her writing always retained Its beautiful, utterly simple character, so that igave one distinct pleasure to see her signature, or find her initials • " CRB" on a memorandum.

At the turn of the century the Agriculture Library certainly had not attained the status of an essential and honorable feature of a scientific institution. Some of the scientists already appreciated its serviôes but others who may have valued its literature seemed to regard the library and its staff as inferior domestic conveniences. It was one of our trials that W. T. Swingle, who was out of the country a good deal of the time, had appropriated an end of our south gallery as a storage warehouse, where he se- questrated library books and dumped his personal beloingings in unpicturesque confusion S It was Miss Ogden who finally had courage to explore this jungle and discover which of our botanical books to be found there. Dr. Swingle remained a thorn in my flesh for many years, but incredible as it may seem, we became good friends after about three decades of mellowing. Another early trial was Dr. T. S. Plmner (lknewIhmsocially before I was in the Department), who Was wont to order me to send the library messenger (our ever gratefully and amusingly remembered Moses Smith) to borrowiprivate copies of books from another highly placed scientist, with whom Dr. Palmer may have been feuding. Although I was always an advocate of cooperation and collaboration, I was violently in- censed at this, and it did my soul good aCter I -was transferred from the Library to the office of the Botanist, to have a vivid dreamnow in which I told Dr. Palmer exactly what I thought of him, with the comforting assurance that he could not take Miss Clark to task for my inSUbordination. Yet at long last I even came to enjoy certain bibliographical hobbies, and exchange names and dates of naturalists and collectors with Dr. Palmer. 0

A r

The experience at the old library that is sharpest In nj memory is the Loan Desk

. job. It cannot iiave been very weighty, although I know I made an effort to follow up -long outstanding loans and locate missing volumes. I cannot tell how long I worked at this desk. Previously the records of books charged out had been kept at somebodys private desk, but a desk for this special purpose was put out in the center of the Library with me in charge, some time in 1901. Its object was probably to relieve Miss Clark, as Librarian, from the interruptions of messengers and the visitors who used to poke their hads -inside the main door and peer around as if to see what kind of strange animals librarians might be; but the arrangement gave me useful experience. It alerted me to the Department personnel and the classification of our books, and my observation post doubt- less gave me some ideas of miscellaneous library functions that proved usful later.

As I remanber it, the Main Library was not much frequented at that time by the men of the bureaus and off ices scattered about the neighborhood. There were some branch libraries with a librarian or other responsible person in charge, while other units had no . library facilities. The Main Library was much used by certain groups in the building: the Section of Foreign Markets, Office of Expeiiment Stations, Office of the Botanist, and Agrostoiogioa1Iflvestigations, which was in the attic and irreverently called "the of us. Later I came to know most of the grass and forage crop people very well, but in that period I remember only C. .R. Ball, whom I have already mentioned, and E. D. Merrill, who soon went to the Philippine Bureau of Science, and steadily pro- gre ssed through a vaidaid brilliant botanical career

The Office of the Botanist,, Frederick V. Coville, was at the other end of the building, and I do not remember any time when his staff did not use the Library. Mr. Steele, who edited botanical bulletins and the Contributions from the U. S. National Herbarium, was continually dog-trotting to and fro; Mr. Dewey, Dr. J. N. Rose of the Herbarium, and Mr. Coville himself were always using the botanical collections, and sometimed carried away books without signing for them, but the botanists were accessible and their needs well known; so that it was comparatively easy to guess the whereabouts of a missing vol- S ume. What was worse, though I did not immediately realize it, was the habit of some of the scientists, notably botanists, of picking up libraijl books from anothers office and r -6-...

carrying them off to parts unknown. For years I bad a dream of a bibliographical Judg- ment Day, when all the books charted to certain botanists would be resurrected, but it was not to be in my time, and probbly not in any other.

Most of the active users of the Department Library in that period Caine SO often and afterwards remained familiar to me for so many years, that I have no distinct recollec- Uon of my earl contacts with them. It was the business of the Loan Desk to watch for strangers and turn over any distinguished visitors to Miss Clarks as well as to see that newcomers to the Department had proper .sexvice. Some of the latter came only once, but for some reason their names stuck in my memory. Possibly because men from the Bureau of Soils hardly ever came to the Library, I recall the first visit of one of their new men who wanted to look over the books on our shelves. Luckily he took a volume with him; so I got his full name, Atherton Seidell, for our examine some periodicals in the stack he needed no assistance, and is remembered only as

SL name • There was another roung man I always think of as "Pippin", because he had good rosy cheeks; his name actually was Fippin (Elmer Otterbein), but I know not whence he came or whither he went.

One person I definitely remember as a newcomer in those early days was W. F. Wight, who came to t . Office of the Botanist soon after I entered the Department, and soon began to haunt the Library, making use of the catalog, searching books on the shelves, and running down obscure references. He must have had considerable previous experience with literature, but he was immediately plunged into the ..complexities of technical citations, on which I was lucky enough to f md s one illumintnn. I think Mr. Wight did not have a remarkable flair for books and bibliography, but approached his literature as a practical botanist, which gave him a sound knowledge of it. He evidently enjoyed the absurd- ities of botanical • synonymy, and his queries gave me a wonderful chance to play with that kind of puzzles. Mr. Wight and I afterwards struggled with matters far more complicated than "H.R.P." and "A.G.", but I always count myself hi7{ebtor for my invaluable introduction to the handling of dates and titles in citations of scientific literature.

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of course this was not research, but partial mastery of some of its tools. However, I recall an incident of possibly 1901 or 19020 when G. Harold Powell, the poinologist (I think afterwards chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry), first came to the Department, bringing with him an ardent desire for data on the introduction of the peach in North America. It may be that none of the senior assistants was around just then; for it fell to me, the veriest ignoramus in such matters, to try to help him identify and locateceairmw explorations and documents I do not know whether be ever published this study, but I do know that I caught the flavor of his enthusiasni, which may have been the spark that kindled my zest for the history of cultivated plants. Qf. course I had to catch fire some time, and this may have been my greatest chance.

One of the early experiences that thrilled me was purely vicarious • I do not know the year when Miss Ogden got together so much literature for E. Meade Wilcox, then path-

ologist at one of the experinent 5tati Ofl s, for use at the Christmas holidays. I do not know whether it was 1,000 items or nearer 1200, but considering that we did not then have our later and better facilities for locating, collecting and handling material, it was a . good deal of a physical tour do force as well as S very expert bibliographical job. I sup. pose it made an impression then on my . unaccustomed mind as something stupendous, though S it may have often been exceeded in number in later years; but it now stands out in my memory as typical of the adequacy and completeness with which the Agriculture Library

always mst the demands upon it. S

I had no "call" to library work, and came to the Department of Agriculture almost by accident. My education was irregular and patchy and had not given me either the fundo amental knowledge or the disciplines of mind and character that one can ordinarily get from sound college training. At nearly thirty, I was a good deal of a misfit. I had: worked at a public library charge desk and assisted a friend on a big technical bibli ography, but had shown no special aptitude s • I had been in the class in library science at George Washington, and had taken the civil service examination for library assistant1 when I was temporarily appointed in the Department Library during Miss Barnetts long . leave of absence. y status was soon made permanent, an4n 1903 I was transferred to the Bureau of Plant Industry, where I was employed with sundry changes and interruptions until I finally retired in 19349

L_ A4

00 8

Thereafter I was at the Department of Agriculture for some time each year, working . on projects of my om or sometimes cooperating with the Library. In May, 1900, when the librarians of the Department united- in hoñàring Miss Barnett on her retirement after 33 years service as Librarian, Miss Ogden, who had retired a short time before, and I were both back, and were present at a dinner for Miss Barnett and Miss Hawks, the Assistant Librarian, who was also retiring. It was held on the anniversary ofmy entrance into the Library; so all the surviving members of the staff of 1900 were together just-forty years afterwards.

On looking back, it seems • as though my pure content in those early days of 1900 was almost prophetic. The library service found use for my subjective faculties that was both stimulating and stabilizing. I had little originality but a good deal of intuition, which was useful both . in recognizing the precise need of the individual or situation, and in die" covering the principle or data that were required. If I had any special gifts for the job they were my faculty of "guessing" and an unoaaty eye and ear for personal names and tech nical terms. My inspiration was due to the scientists with whom I worked, and my library colleagues. It is now too late to not,, hr deficiencies, and it seems as if there never was time to do so during the first twenty o years. There were plenty of mistakes and discouragement s o but it seems as though I had been always swept along by a strpng current of interest and e$citement that kept me off the shoals.

M. F. Warner Walpole, N. H. March 21, 1955 (Copied, with slight verbal rvison, August 13, 1955)

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"Literature of Botany" (19034922)

In 1902/1903 several Plaint Industry units previously boated in makeshift quarters S were brought together in a new building at 224 Twelfth Street, Southwest, under the title of Botanical Investigations. They included workers in economicand systematic botany, the seed laboratory, cereal studies, weeds, various tropical plants, poisonous and medicinal plants, ath others. The Botanist, Frederick V. Coville, was general head of this group, and early in 1903 I was transferred from the Department Library to his staff, to set up library and bibliographical service for the workers in this building.

Nobody, least of all mse1f, could have guessed that most of the rest of my life would be given to work with botanical literature, for which I had no training, though as the work unfolded it proved remarkably congenial. It was not because of nr fitness that I was chosen for the job, but because I was the one who could best be sp.red from the library staff, and was at the saw time tolerably qualified to deal with the business of a branch library. But, as often results from apparent accidents, my later activities seemed to unroll and shape themselves in this direction, perhaps better than if they had been part of an original far-reaching plan.

Thenceforth my work in the Department of Agriculture was tiód to projects in plant science, in many of ithioh I was keenly interested and felt myself almost a part; but tho the years fran 1903 to 1922 were full of activity, there were few individual occurrences that can be dated. There were many highlights, but the work as a whole was continuous, interlocking, and often repetitive, so that om hardly knew when one undertaking was 2 in. ished and another begun it brought many friendships that were not often intimate, but were sotimes very close because of common interest in current projects or personal hobs. bies. Many of the ideas and discoveries in which we were then interested have long since become basic knowledge, but it is strange to realize that their protagonists are gone. What is to most people of today ancient history, at my long vista of years seems "only yesterday", but the beginning of the twentieth century is in my mind not an orderly pattern of persons and events, but a shimmering kaleidoscope; the pattern is blurred and the . colors faded; but I sometimes seem to feel once more the drive and excitement of that day. r I /60 1

The first years are clearest in nj mind, probably because I was so inexperienced and . was always facingnew problems. The personnel of the 12th Street group varied slightly as projects changed in scope, but many of the botanists remained till we moved into the new West Wing in 1908. There may be persons yet living who once worked in the Twelfth Street building, but there cannot be many survivors of the original group of 1903.

To me the 11108t important member of the staff was Alice C. Atwood,. who was transferred from the Main Library in 1906 to develop the botanical catalog that eventually became a aer, vice to botanists the world over. I have tried to evaluate that work in D. C. Libraries January, 1943; but I can never give any idea of her personality or details of her method. From the first we worked together with a broad and unified concept of the aims of our project. We had the paramount idea that the literature was meant to be used and the catalog

was meant to make it useful. It was necessary that our approach to the subject should be clear to the "meanest intelligence"; yet on the other hand it was essential to present the newest botanical discoveries and principles in a manner suited to the finer intelligences we had begun to appreciate. . I can remember no division of labor between Alice Atwood and myself, but knowing her gifts of application and sustained production (our colleague Eunice Ober].y once jokingly likened us to the "Shining Example" and "AwfulWarning" ) , I think she often carried the burden of the branch libraxy routine while I did the Scouting, which sometimes took me far afield. This happy sharing of tasks was the beginning of a close and satisfying friendship that ended only with her death in May, 1947. Being at a little distance from our library colleagues, we depended largely on mutual companionship and came to share many outside undertakings. Some of our pleasures are perennially bright and fresh. In early spring we sometimes made forced marcIs during our lunch hour to the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge over the Potomac, to see a/hear the the weeping willows swept by March winds into showers of gold and silver. One year there was a long-remembered glory of white-flowered cherries t the far end of the "Basin" which was soon afterwards destroyed and never replaced. We took a certain walk year after year after office hours on some long sprin afternoon,fran . Silver Spring down the length of Rock Creek Park, gatIe ring strawberries as we walked, to eat with our sandwiches in some inviting spot. There was a particular sprint where we slaked our thirst, a relic of one of the old farms that once occupied a considerable por-

tion of thatz tract I wonder if it exists today. Sometimes we • would be leisurely strol- ling down through dim twilit forest paths and suddenly come • out into full moonlight above

the openings about Pierce I s Mill. So much for our playtimes, but work was pleasant too.

There were amusing episodes at Twelfth Street: such as the afternoon when Alice and I left early for a concert, axd found ourselves all hatted and coated at the outer door,

when we spied a clock and sneaked back giggling to our desks to await the proper hour, but not without encountering Dr. Coville, who gayly chided us for not quite getting away with

our elopement. Another occasion was when we had lunched at our desks and set the tray of

dishes aside to be washed up by our good Maria; when Alice in a moment of inspiration sprang up and swept the tray to the floor with great clatter and destruction of teacups.

Like everybody else in the paper-bag-lunch era of government service, we had to plan our lunches and gladly adopted a sharing procedure that permitted soup or cocoa or other coin- forts. Life was very much self-contained in those far-off times.

One personal incident is associated in my mind with those early years, but actually happened much later. Alice and I were reclassifying botanical books in a room near the Loan Desk of -the Main Library in the basement of the East Wing, when Itipped over the stool on which I had been standing and landed on my coccyx, adjuring Alice not to touch me. Some men at the far western end of the stacks, seeing me lying supine in the middle of the aisle, rushed to the aid of a damsel in distress, and were horrified to discover Alice standing icily aloof. (This actually happend in late fall or early- winter -of 1913, as I had a call that day from an old Iowa friend, the mother-in-law of Cato Sells, Indian Commissioner under President Wilson, who had just arrivOd in Washington to spend the holidays of 1913 with her daughter). Miss Atwood and I undoubtedly made a great deal of use

of the Main Library while it was in the East Wing, both from our first location on 12th Street and later from the West Wing, but I have practically no other recollection of the Library in that location except my adventure with the footstool.

AL 1%,7

Miss Barnett, in her article, "Frederick Vernon Coville, a Friend of the Library", in Agriou1tur1 Library Notes, February, 1937, presents very fully the background of the "Literature of Botany" project under which Miss Atwood and I were employed as bibliograph.. ical assistants in Dr. Covi].les office. It would be tedious to give details of the evo- lutlon of the Botanical Catalog under Miss Atwood, but a word should be said in regard to the building up of the botanical collections of the Library, which made great progress after Miss Barnett became Librarian in 1907. She had a remarkably deep sense of the value of agriculture as a historic and social factor, and genuim interest in the early literature of agriculture and gardening, realizing that the roots of plant science have sprung from many obscure and nondescript sources. She held a clear vision of the importaioe of the Department Library for the history of agriculture, together with the urgency bf keeping abreast of its modern developments. In previous years I had made purchasing cards for important botanical books not then available in Washington, on the off-chance that the Li.. brary might be able to get hold of them; but opportunities to secure out-of-print books were spasmodic, and funds were elusive. Miss Barnett, however, soon put the purchase of old and rare books on a continuing though necessarily elastic basis; so that we were some- . times able to grasp unusual opportunities.

Here :i should record my personal debt to Dr. Coville, He was a man of vision, tho counted bibliography only second to literature itself as a basis for scientific research It was my good forturm to come under the influence of his ideas just at the time when the scientific investigations of the Department of Agriculture were being evolved with vigor and enthusiasm. He gave incentives to my personal development by his approval of projects that made f or the availability of literature to anyone in any way. My tasks were many and varied, my responsibilities large and free. I was permanently assigned to the book-buying project, with more or less continuous (and inspiring) cooperation with Miss Barnett. This gave me some acquaintance with the classic literature of agriculture that was afterwards an important asset, which otherwise might have never come to me at all.

Dr. Coville was also critically helpful in encouraging my writing and publication of historical and bibliographical data. He despised careless writing of any kind, and I have a feeling that he enjoyed criticising my technique and taste in work of this kind. It has always been a secret source of pride that my "first piece" was a "Bibliographical Note" in

the since defunct British Journal of Botany, and I used to gloat surreptitiously over the index entry under my name in the catalog of the British Museum (Natural History). In fact . I published very little while in the Department, but in the years immediately before and following the first world war I had ample pract ice in writing briefs and memoranda, and sometimes found my phraseology cropping out in Congressional reports on undertakings for which new or increased appropriations were being sought. I did not need to learn bow to polish phrases, but Dr. Coville always pointed the need of writing with conviction. Even now I write with some of his criticisms in mind. He helped me to gain an aasurahe of my own o5paoitj, and to write with authority as well as accuracy.

One of Dr. Coirilles less admirable traits was his generosity about offering space An my small office to people trying to deal with citations. Charles Vancouver Piper was working on one of his northwestern floras and wanted all the literature sent to my office but never came to look at it, though always asking for more till I rose in revolt and got rid of the encumbrance. By contrast, Prof. Bruce Fink, the lichenologist from Miami Uni- versity, spent most of one summer vacation there in checking literatuee for a monumental Sbook on lichens, and I would gladly have given him more than half of my kingdom Mr. P. L. Ricker of our Twelfth Street group was detailed toaid Dr • Fink on the technique of citations and in disentangling snags, and my opportunity to assist these two zealous bibliographers was an education in itself.

A good deal of the literature of systematic botany was kept in our building and was often consulted by persons from outside with our cordial cooperation. C. R. Ball came to examine the systematic and some other obscure works for a bulletin on Indian corn, in the preface of which he acknowledged my help, something that had never before been done, and which never again happened to me. It was a privilege to get together the books we had in our building for use in some special piece of work and perhaps offer clues to others that were hard to find; and I do not see how the Department scientists could possibly acknowl- edge all the help that was freely given by the librarians; but the bibliographical service was sometimes important enough to merit recognition, and it is even now heart-warming to record this instance of it. Probably our small library service on Twelfth Street came to . have a rather high proportion of inquiries from outsiders, some of whom were b ibliograph- ical "hounds" like ourselves, and it was always inspiring to have visits from them.

A One of my early special tasks Was looting literature on the flora of Alaska, which involved many contributions in voyages and explorations we did not then have in Washington, and led to my visiting the Astor Library in New York to examine them. This was then one of the richest collections in this subject in the United States (now in the permanent reference collection of the New York Public Library), though most of these works were sooner or later acquired by the Library of Congresss; -

A minor occurrence in 1905 had far-reaching effects on the development of the Library and my own hobbies. Miss E. L. Ogden came over with a new issue of the Journal of the na tional horticultural society of France, with an article on French horticultural literature by Georges Gibault, then librarian of the society. There were many works available on Eng- lish gardening books, but very little on horticultural literature of the Continent, and also Gibault s article was limited, it served for years as my chief guide to early French works and stimulated my interest in the early books on agriculture and gardening in other languages, many of which were later bought by the Department Library. Moreover, it turned out that some of these apparently unbotanieal gardening books gave valuable data on cult.. .ivAted plants, particularly those introduced from America in the 16th and 17th centuries, and thus supplement the scanty systematic and descriptive botany of certain periods.

Of course we had a rudimentary union catalog of botanical works in the libraries of Washington, to which we added cards for works in several private collections available to

us. Miss Atwood went over to Baltimore to catalog the fine collection of John Donnell Smith, relating to flora s of the Antilles, Central America and Mexico; and this list was published in 1908 as Contributions from the U. S. National Herbarium, v.12, no.1. 1 had

the privilege of cataloging the private library of Dr. Edward Lee Greene, who had a good many Prelinnean works that were then available (but not readily loaned) at the Library of the Surgeon Generals office (now Armed Forces Medical Library). Many of Dr. Greene s books were naturally duplioates of our own, but it was worth a great deal to me to work over his. specially important old books, aii have his estimate of their use and value. He

was the most sch6larly botanist I have ever known in his special field of Prelinnean bat- any, and in later years I used often to wish for his opinion on books that were offered to S the Department Library, or some dubious item that might be highly touted by some undiscrim-

mating botanist of a later day and lesser background. h1 . •1

In 1908 most of the Plant Industry units were moved into the new West Wing, and the . library service formerly conducted by Alice Atwood and myself was merged with that of the Office of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology, forming the Bureau of Plant Industry library with Eunice R. Oberly at its head. Her oompetent staff took over the routine services for the entire building, while Alice and I were located in the Bureau library though still on Dr. Covilles staff, and were free for cataloging and bibliographical work. It soon was obvious that Miss Atwood s indexing should be coordinated with that begun by Miss Oberly in the field of plant pathology, to avoid duplication and cover the gi,oundrnpre effect. ively, and this was gradually accomplished. In the summer of 1909 Miss.- Atwood and I va- cationed at Cornell University, taking bot 8nioal courses to help us in, systematizing sub.a ject headings and classification of botanical works.

At about this time we did a great deal of reclassification of the Department collec-. tions, completely revolutionizing some of the former botanical groups and trying to find suitable relations for special topics that seemed to have been dropped into the ancient classification by sheer accident. Classification its - always a moot tOPic, and that of the . Department of Agriculture Library was never thought perfect by any of us; but it accordance with the growth and - use of our collection and the scientific trends of the day, which indicates a certain degree of flexibility. I have never been able to guess whether any pre-existing system of library classification would have been better suited to the Department; we simply took the rather mechanical scheme that had long since been devised for the Library and tried to make it work, and in the long run it worked surprisingly well. I do not believe it was merely because I had helped to work out the sub-classes that same of them soon seemed automatically related. It sometime seemed to me, even not very long ago, that if I could find myself back in the stacks of the Department Library, I could easily place almpst any book I had ever used. But now I have forgotten most of the books themselves that were once so familiar.

At some rather early date, Liberty Hyde Bailey asked the Department Library for additions and corrections on a list of American horticultural books and periodicals for the new edition of the Standard 2)rclo2edia, of Horticulture in 1913. We had a good many, and I found more at the Library of Congress. I think this job resulted in a kind of census of horticultural works in our own and a few other American libraries, though it seemed to i: j 61

lose itself very soon in other deve lopments . Of course we soon found that a large proportion of the so-called "editions" of farm and garden books of the mid-nineteenth century were mere reprints and poor ones at that. But there was some sense in distinguishing a veritable first edition, and it was sometimes found that a later issue was improved by notes or corrections by an able editor, and I think it was ôonceded that as a repository f or agrioultura I history, the Department Library might be justif led in keeping worthless issues or definite records thereof, simply to prove that they had once existed.

About 1910 or 1911 1 noted many books at the library- of the Massachusetts ffortioul-

tural Society in Boston that were previously unknown to me, though few of them were very rare or i3iportant. However, we made an effort to get some of the essential ones for the

Department and kept records of the location of others. Again in 1915, I spent a couple of

months in Chicago and St. Louis, examining Prelinnean books at the Missouri Botanical Gar

den, and maxy important works, chiefly agricultural, at the John Crerar Library in Chicago.

This trip also gave me a chance to get acquainted with a ,select private collection of Ger-

man agricultural books belonging to Dr. H. Be Horton, a friend of my high school days, who . had long beenmy most valued adviser on agricultural literature, and was then living and

had his library in Waukegan, Illinois.

The checking and cataloging of titles for the Cyclopedia of Horticulture was probably

the beginning of a secondary but important continuing project of my own. Our idea of Inm creasing the botanical resources of the Department Library had never been limited to bot.s any in the narrow sense, but included all agriculture in so far as it dealt with plants.

There were a good many bibliographies of botany, notably Pritzels Thesaurus literaturae botanicae, in 1851, with a revised and enlarged edition in 1872; supplemented by other authorities, some less exact and some in special fields. But for agriculture in general and for gardening books other than English, the bibliography was inadequate and purchase of books often involved a great deal of Investigation. Consequently it was convenient to

keep a crude file of entries for rare works in agriculture and horticulture found In other collections, not only for the possibility that they might be needed for reference, but also for information in connection with future purchase. This was expanded by titles from bibliographies and sometimes from booksellers lists, and finally resolved itself into a comprehensive check list of horticultural books prior to 1800. 17

There are pleasantly frivolous memorle s of pre-war days in the West Wing: such as . tasting blueberries, naming lighthouse tenders, and supplying floral emblemsforvarius purposes, all little jobs associated with the "Big Chief", Dr. Coville. I don&t believe we were asked for state flowers, as there are always plenty of candidates for that without calling on competent persons; but Dr. Coville had been known as the Department Botanist for years, and received many direct inquiries as well as through the usual correspondence. Some minor queries were turned over to me, and I often had to throw light on others. One interesting case was the Pilgrim Tercentenary postage, on which the Bureau bf Engraving proposed to use the English "may" or hawthorn as an emblem, while Dr • Coville peremptorily insiste d tht the only f lower suitable was our New England mayf lower" (Epigaea repens). It took very little search on my part to bring out the devastating fact that "mayflower" was never used in England for the flower of the hawthorn, but had been used for a number of ships. The B. of E., however, was loth to give up the "may"; so we compromised by let. ting them use the hawthorn blossom for a border at one and of the stamp; while we got the "trailing arbutus" (Epigaea) at the other. When the postage was finally issued, the of- . foot was good, especially on the green one-center with the Pilgrim ship. The flowers, as a matter of fact look a good deal alike on the stamps, but we can always claim that our new England "inayfloer" is on the Pilgrim postage.

Tasting blueberries sounds like an office perquisite, something like deep-freeze, or "mink", or Dixon-Yates; but Miss Atwood and I felt it a serious responsibility. Dr. Coville and I acquired vacation homes in blueberry land about the same time, and many were the dis- oussions on the qualities of native berries. His experiiints in blueberry culture had begun while we were at Twelfth Street, continued for many years, and were published 4 great many years ago; but sometimes nowadays the dessert fruit reminds me of the old- tire s when Alice and I were asked to pass a judicial opinion on the flavor and texture of this or that new hybrid. A lot of literature was involved in the blueberry project, which roused my interest in the growth, flowering, fruiting, and wintering habits of certain heath plants, and continueto fascinate me to this day.

The first world war brought some confusion and stress into Department Library work because of emergency questions that were often stupidly handled before they reached us, and also because of the mania for "war work" that took away a number of junior and some higher

PFF- I 1P

assistants. The Plant Industry Library lost no personnel in this shuffle, but I remember hearing Miss Ogden query it1er ruefully whether there was no merit in keeping up the necom a ssary work of the Department, that everyone seemed so eager to get out ofjt • My only venture into "war work" cane when I was virtually forced to invent an emblem for a thrift savings poster. Of course the poor artist working on the design had been held up till the thirteenth hour, and reached the library in the WestW±ng after two oclock on a Saturday in midsuimner, than which there could be no more dearted place or time. Unluckily I had not gone home, and finally, after hunting all over the Main Library, then in the Bieber Building across the street, I found a couple of pictures supposed to represent "thrift, with which to pacify the artist. That poster was almost immediately sQppressed, though not before I had one glimpse of it. If my complicity had been known, I might have lost my head as well.

For my own part, the urge to be doing something worth while (besides knitting socks and sweaters) and to vary the unreal atmosphere of the times, led ins to spend many of my evenings arid Sundays at the Library of Congress, in search of data on gardening in Colonial America. In 1919 the Agricultural History Society was formed by ardent historians of the Department, joined by many others who had been brought to Washington through various war undertakings. It was an alert and rather distinguished group, several of whom were interested in the rare early publications and manuscripts of American agriculture, an interest . that was a tremendous stimulus to my own. I contributed one study to the proceedings of the Agricultural History Society, and it might seem as though I should have continued n early research in American materials; but my immediate work in the Departiient of Agricul- ture trended more and more in other directions. There were frequent demands for unknown or obscure details of plant introduction, often in connection with crop plants long in cul. tivation; and on the bibliographical side there were many questions about sources and con- tents of the old books we were getting from time to time. So it finally resulted that my zest for historical research was concentrated on problems connected with rare books and a rathe r limited special field and period of plant introduction.

The interruptions of war time helped to speed up the pace of the work immediately afterwards. The years 1919-1921 seem to me to have been teeming with activity, but I cannot recall any particularly interesting scientific investigations belonging to that period.

The memorable opportunities seem to have been in bibliography. One that came right after

the war was collecting and abstracting literature on the vegetation of Africa for Dr. K. L. Shantz, which was to be used in the consideration of mandated territories by the Versailles Conference if I remember, it aright. Our bot anica 1 catalog contained a great deal on the

economic resources of many geographical areas, and the books involved were brought to the Plant Industry Library, where members of the staff worked on them as they had leisure.

Another memorable task came to me in 1919 or 1920 0 when Dr. Neil E. Stevens asked me to help him edit the section of history and bibliography in Botanical Abstracts. It was both irksome and exciting, as few of the persons who regularly abstracted certain periodi-

CalS had any idea of the interest of . archaeology, ethnology or many other phases of plant lore, and most of the notes they sent in had to be completely rewritten. On the other hand we found a quantity of material that would be entirely overlooked by anyone without a flair

for history and the like; and after the interruption of the war years there was an accumulas

tion of now publications to fe searched. Dr. Stevens was brilliant and widely read, and I had devoted special attention to these topics in the course of our plant science indexing; . so i: sometimes think the volumes of Botanical Abstracts of about 1919-1912. must have been really distinguished for the richness and extent of the view of botanical history that we

presented. This task did not occupy agreat deal of my time, but it was absorbing while it lasted, and a stimulating experience to be remembered for all time to some.

Of course that post-war period was not wholly occupied by such specially interesting activities, but there were plenty of minor ones. The regular routine of eatalging had to go on, and became an ever larger task. Miss Atwood was largely responsible for it and had some assistance, but certain features still fell to my lot. As we began again to receive old books from Europe I spent more and more time developing our list of desiderata which, though it may have consumed a lot of time, did pay off in the wise and discriminating pur-

chase of books. One matter that I eternally regret is the time spent in furnishing lists

of our desiderata to persons planning to be traveling in Europe. These often took four or five days of precious time, and we got absolutely nothing from any of them. The only time we got anything through our botanical travellers was when A. S. Hitchcock, a bibliophile on his own account, took note of rare works he had ob se rued in a London Bookshop, and Miss

Barnett afterwards ordered them on his recommendation.

. . 5LO

It must have been during and shortly after the first world war that I added to our

•! list of desiderata and rarities by extensive cataloging of works in the New York Public Library and the New York Botanical Garden, and checked a few priceless editions located at the Arnold Arboretum, which was just beginning to publish the catalog of its library. All these collections were somewhat familiar to me from previous visits, but about this time I noted a good many obscure works, some of which we never did get for the Department Library. The rather shapeless list of desiderata proved a great asset. Sometimes I xnde mistakes about books bought on my recommendation, but on the whole I could "point with pride", and the collections of botanical and agricultural literature in the Department continued-to grow in value for a good many years.

One notable feature of the war and post-war period was our botanical visitors. Many came to Washington, and botanical and bibliographical matters brought them to the Plant Industry Library. Miss Oberly, the Bureau Librarian, once concluded that the great proportion of her time was used in "conference and consultation.". The visible results were slight, but the time was not wasted. Several botanists:spent considerable tine at our ii- . brary, examining the catalogs and collecting references for future use in their work. One - of them is specially remembered because of his tragic fate a decade or so later. Nikolai I. Vavilov, who-was head of the Russian bureau of plant science, was an attractive and distinguished guest, whose "liquidation" by the USSR will always be in the minds of his American friends a damning evidence of Russian scientific idiocy.

If the highlights seemed rather fewer in the later years, it was partly because they were crammed "so full of a number of things", and also be the problems did not loom so high ef te r we were better prepared to meet them. But the tasks never became pure rowo tine, because one was always discovering new angles of interest or closing gaps in previ ously inadequate information. It then seemed to me that the "Literature cf Botany" pro-. ject, which had adapted itself to changing conditions through so many years, might well continue to evolve similarly for many years to come. 0 ppr -

Gains and Losses (1922-1940)

In 1922 I became a displaced person. After the death of Eunice R. Oberly, the bril- S liant and efficient Librarian of Plant Industry, in November, 1921, reorganization of the Bureau Library seemed advisable. Its periodical circulation and general service were corn- petently handled by the staff under Jessie M. Allen, who had been assistant librarian for a number of years and af te rward s became Librarian of the Bureau • Miss Atwood took over the indexing of plant patho1oy begun by Miss Oberly, for which she was well qualified; It was at first carried on separately, but gradually coordinated with our already extensive catalog in general plant science • Shortly thereafter it was decided to move all Miss Atwood s work to the Main Library in the Bieber Building, and to discontinue the book collection in the West Wing. These changes were in the spirit of progress and were advocated by the De- partrnent Librarian, Claribel R. Barnett, and warmly approved by the heads of our Bureau. All were gradually carried out in 1922/1923.

For reasons ci seniority, I was transferred from Dr. Covilles staff to the office of the Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, and served a year as Librarian of the Bureau. SIf my original transfer from the Main Library to the office of the Botanist was purely op portunist, this later one was fantastic to the point of idiocy. I had never had any exec- utive duties or paper work, and at fifty, after nearly a score of years as a virtual free- lance, was altogether inexpert in the new function; so the Bureau liquidated an excellent ec- ibliographer without getting a tolerable equivalent in another capacity.

Dr. Karl Kellerman, then Associate Chief of the Bureau, had singularly enlightened views of the function of a library in a scientific institution, and thought the transfer of certain parts of its work from the Plant Industry -branch to the Main Library would not only result in greater efficiency in general service, but would release the assistants at the Bureau for more cataloging and bibliographical work. But while it was not only pract- icable but highly advantageous to have all the book circulation handled by the Main Librsyy, it was desirable to have current periodicals circulated and controlled by the branches, and this continued to be the main f unc ti on of our Plant Industry unit. Moreover, the removal of the catalogs and catalogers to the Main Library lessened our contacts with the scien- . tific workers, who thereafter visited us chieflyAcomPlain about deficiencies in service or cajole us into recommending additional purchases of reference books for their immediate offices. r

The library service as a whole and the long range interests of the Bureau of Plant Industry undoubtedly benefited by locating the Botanical Catalog and Miss Atwoods activ- S ities in the Main Library. Her work was made more convenient and efficient and had the ut.a most cooperation and generous recognition from the Library. She continued for some years on Dr. Covilles staff; but then and later, when transferred to the office of the Chief of the Bureau, retained complete freedom in her own work and liberty to undertake any bibliographical opportunities that appeared urgent or specially desirable. The catalog itself of course. had far wider use prestige from its location in the Main Library.

The Plant Industry branch was not hampered by petty restrictions, but was obliged to keep up many routine tasks and missed the inspiration of personal contact with the users P r . the literature, and so got rather out of touch with Bureau projects. I felt myself cut off from the interests of the Department of Agriculture for the time, but after a little more than a year was obliged to take a long furlough because of the illness and death of my mother. I returned to the Bureau in 1926 as a bibliographical assistant and remained till my retirement in 1934. The work of that period comprised a good deal of preparation S of literature lists. Indexing current .periodicals for a bi-weekly list on new work in agronomy was stimulating and educative, as it had relation to some of the projects of the Department and experiment stations; but Miss Allen and I spent far too much time in editing for publication a gigantic list of references on plant breeding that had been gathered by the staff. This might have been valuable if it could have had the direction and anti- den of a scientist familiar with the subject; but without such oversight it remained un- organized and indigestible. I had always deplored the compilation of mere aggregatiots of titles, and was bitterly humiliated to be associated with this one.

The Bureau Library often received challenging inquiries, chiefly from sources outside the Department, as the questions connected with scientific projects of the Bureau were more apt to be referred direct to Miss Atwood and her aids. One bibliographical job that came to my hands was particularly interesting and currently important. M. Be McKay, as Pathologist of the Oregon Experiment Station, had done definitive work on the mosaic disease of tulips Sknown as "breaking", and believed that the long history of as a garden flower was likely to yield evidences similar to those observed in his experiments. On a brief visit to Washington, he examined some of the extenEive literature in the Department Library, and

A suggested my collaboration in a joint article or bulletin presenting the evidences of the . mosaic in early literature, neatly tied in with the modern diagnosis of the disease. This was just the type of bibliographical cooperation advocated by Dr. Kellerman, who cordially

approved the project,. which occupied considerable time for- .-a couple of years. The paper-- was published in the National Horticultural Magazine for Auly, 1933, and constitutes an in- portant and possibly permiient contribution to tulip literature.

My loss of contact with scientific projects of the Bureau was offset by many and varied Personal contacts at the Main Library, where my work kept me much of the time, and where I had a desk at the Bieber Building and later in the new Library quarters in the South Build- ing, where a snail office was assigned me. My growing familiarity with the agricultural and botanical literature of the Department brought me some pleasant chores, such as the chance to "show off" some cf our treasures, or run down an elusive item for some stranger.

About 1929 or 1930 Mrs. Helena Morgenthau Fox spent some time at the Department Libra- ry, working on a particular inquiry on herbs and aromatic plants. Between the references . she had already gathered and the topios of our already immense Botanical Catalog, we found there were hundreds of volumes involved, but many of these proved to have no value for. hr inquiry. To sVO time and handling of books, as well as the time and patience of the in- quirer, most of this huge mass of literature was screened in thestacks by Mr. Wright of the Library staff and myself. I have no idea how many volumes were handled, but there were several long sets of periodicals in which nearly every volume had to be opened. Ability to discard irrelevant data may be quite as useful as the gift of discovering genuine source •Cc4. material; , its acquisition is a rather slow and tedious process and probably proceeds much like Alice Atwoods and my original indexing, by trial and error.

One of my tasks that might be called ornamental, but was in fact very incompatible with elegance in those dusty days, was in helping Mr. Gordon Dunthorne to locate some of our fine illustrated books, from which he reproduced plates for his lovely volume, Flower

!!Jiand Prints, published in 1938. This was another phase of my bibliographical education, though it came too late, alas, to benef it the Department Library in our , purchase of . books, in which I was always lamentably ignorant of many points noted by bibliophiles.

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There was never a time when I did not have a passionate pride in the Department Li-

. brary as wthle. There was always keen interest in the growth of the collection of agricultural arid botanical literature, where the gaps were always becoming less and less. Although I had been separated from Dr. Covilles project for many years, it was always understood that my skill and knowledge, such as they were, were dedicated to building up those collections. Perhaps this task gave me the keenest satisfaction in my whole experience in the Departnnt; though it was hardly more than t4r pride in the catalog developed by and under the direction of my colleague, Alice Atwood. I had long since ceased to do any work upon it, but found it automatically suited to to the needs of my research; and so, I think, did hundreds of others who depended on it in greater or less degree. There had come a time when it was possible to locate almost any publication needed for botanical research, or definitely trace it, through the aid of this catalog and the supporting reference collections of the Department of Agriculture Library. Perhaps that library was too much like a botanical bibliographers paradise to last-- Now, it is sometimes difficult to realize that it ever existed-- . c

In 1934 there was a reorganization of personnel in the Department of Agriculture that made it possible for me to retire, though not yet seventy, nor even sixty-eight, with a civil service annuity. There were many thimgs I had longed to do for which there was no time nor opportunity while I remained in the Department; so I was thankful to have more leisure even with a reduced income. People often have grand ideas about what they will do when they retire, but mine were tolerably modest, though they included the hope of going on with some kinds of bibliographical work. Some of them, however, depended on a brother who died suddenly just before my retirement, not only disrupting particular plans but in- volving large future adjustments as well. While trying to reshape my affairs it seemed desirable to spend part of each winter at the Department; so I was back at the Library more or less from 1935/36 to 1939/400 . Those were profitable and happy years. Through the cooperation of Miss Jessie Allen, Librarian of Plant Industry, my old check-list of horticultural wcvks prior to 1800, was 1:k^;-_

copied from cards into loose-sloef form, in triplicate. I did considerable editing and an- notation in cooperation with Miss Janice Brown of the Bureau Library, who was officially

responsible for the completion of the list in 1939. Miss Brown further added to it and kept it up to date by manuscript additions during the next three or four years, when she was obliged to drop this extra task. But in 1949 I was able to send the second set, with

some further notes and additions-of my own, to the Lindley Library of the Royal Horticul-

tural Society in London, where some of our data mar . be helpful on its own catalog. Thus I had the satisfaction of seeing one of my pet undertakings put to use in my own time.

The book buying phase of the "Literature of Botany" project had virtually come to an end before this times i: have already noted that we had a good many opportunities for

getting desired books in the years following the f ir st world war, but the market . offered comparatively few inducements in the 1930s. But it was heartening to go about the Library

and see bow far we ha succeeded in getting all those books that had once seemed so unob- taiflable. Miss Barnett, in an article on Frederick Vernon Coville shortly after his death (Agnes Library Notes, Feb. 1937), had written: "From the cooperation initiated by [him] . over 40 years ago it has been possible for the Library to achieve in groat measure the

ideal . . . of a library in whic h accurate • inf orination regarding the vegetable resource a of the world would be at all times accessible". That part of his dream was fulfilled.

Those last winters at the Department renewed and deepened old friendships, and gave me a chance to know some of the younger assistants who were beginning to take over the bui - . dens of the library service. Although Alice Atwood and I could no longer walk the length of Rock Creek Park in wild strawberry time or scramble over the cliff a at Four Mile Run, we lunched together as of old; and often discussed catalog problems and new discoveries in botanical science, if not quite so constantly, at least with no le a a gusto than 1i our earliest years of work together.

M.F.Warrier S Walpole, N.H. June 17, 1955 . Copied, with Slight revision . August 1-10, 1955

The U. S. Department of Agriculture Library, 1900-1940 "Literature of Botany" fl C5iM When I began writing my recollections in the fall of 1954, it was with a vague hope of recapturing the spirit and ideals. that directed the growth and functions of the Department of Agriculture Library during the first forty years of the century. But too much has been forgotten. My memories of the Department Library are warm and moving, but very few of its important contributions to library affairs come back to me clearly. It did magnificent service to scientific prpgrees in the United States , and even abroad, but it is Impossible for me to describe its influence or its special adaptations.

Only lately I have begun to see the Department Library in perspective. Although I retired from the Department in 1934, the separation did not seem final for years. I was at the Library a good deal of the time until Miss Barnetts retirement in 1940s and kept in touch with f orrne r library associates throughout the war years I left the Do partire nt with unsolved problems in the histpry and bibliography of botany that have occupied me through the intervening years, and furnished contacts with the Department Library and S with scientists and bibliographers elsewhere while my own perebnal life was completely isolated. Meanwhile the Agriculture Library that I knew has passed into history.

- However, there are features of my particular project, the "Literature of Botany", under the late F. V. Coville, Botanist of the Department, which I joined in 1903 and continued to serve till 1922 (and in a certain sense have continued to serve all the rest of lay life), that made deep impressions and now long afterwards bring out significant Judg- ments. That really unique project, which had barely come into being at the turn of the century, has been adequately described by Claribel R. Barnett in her article, "Frederick V. Coville, a Friend of the Library" (Agricultural Library Notes, v912, no.2, February, 1937). Its success depended on the basic services of the Department Library and the un- stinted cooperation of its Librarian, Miss Barnett. Hence, while an independent project, its progress and results were inseparable from those of the Main Library, and my experience may reflect something of the spirit and vital aims of the whole library service during the first quarter of the century and probably throughout the whole of Miss Bar. nett S administration.

A It has always seemed to me that this project was begun at a specially favorable

time, and it IS now obvious that it could not have succeeded at any other. The Department of Agriculture was passingfrom the stage of exclusive (if not always adequate) advice to the dirt farmer", into the era of scientific study of the farmers problems. It wa to

become for a time whet one of my botanical colleagues termed the greatest university for graduate scientific study ixi the United States. It was interesting to watch those eager, brilliant young men that came fresh f ran college to undertake laboratory and field exper-

iments that were to be far-reaching in their results Many of these promising scientists were soon lost toother institutions and even to business opportunities; for there were

as yet no provisions for rational job classification or retirement pay; but our "gradu-

atee" held important posts elsewhere, and the education . received in the Department was not wasted. So it was the task of the Agriculture Library as a whole, with its auxiliary services, to supply the background literature for vast new researches.

Dr. Coville had been in the Department several years; having come as a very young and keen assistant botanist withvision and imagination, for which by good fortune there 4^ was opportunity as well as need. Although his idea had vast possibilities, it required

persuasion and coordination rather than great expenditures to set it in motion, and his

scheme was very well shaped by 1900. The Literature of Botany project comprised primar- ily acquisition of all literature that might be needed in the botanical investigations of the Department, to be bought either by the departmental library or othrs accessible to our scientists, and Dr. Coville soon brought about cooperation with the Library of Congress in the purchase of botanical books. It also involved the development of all botanical resources available in Washington by making a census of books, and by indexing botanical material from all classes of publications. This bibliographical phase. of the project was not begun till 1904 or 1905; but both these aims were fully achieved during

Dr. Covilles lifetime. 1.

, . . .. .

4,1

The Botanical Catalog and Miss Atwood s 6wjking facilities were moved about 1923 from the Bureau of Plant Industry to the Main Library, and it has been questioned that it might

have fared better if it had remained at the bureau that was specially occupied with botana. - ical work. But the. consolidation and correlation of certain features of library service . were advocated by the Librarian, Miss Barnett, and strongly supported by Dr. Karl Keller^

man, then Associate Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry and one of the best friends the

library service ever had. His attitude was in some ways similar to that of Dr. Coville,

and ihile he did not make it explicit, I believe he agreed with my theory that the scien-

tific work of the Department could best be served by library assistants working in close cooperation with the scientists in their particular projects, much as I had one in my ear-

her position. Dr. Kellerman certainly hoped that transfer of the book collection and periodical circulation to the Main Library might release the Bureau library staff Por a larger quota of bibliographical work, but the time and circumstances were not favorable

to specialization, and the Plant Industry library retained nany routine functions.

As removal of the catalogs to the Main Library drew the scientists over there to con-

. suit. it and get bibliographical assistance from the catalogers, the Bureau Library tended to lose vital contacts with important plant science projects; but the Botanical Cat.log gained in value and efficiency through its location in the Main Library, as it was more

and more neesaary to coordinate all possible library resources to keep up with the expansion and diversification of Plant Industry projects. As long as the Department carried on a great body of botanical research, the Botanical Catalog continued to be indispensable.

The Literature of Botany project may be said to have ended with the retirement of Alice Atwood in 1942. My official connection ceased in 1922, although I had an advisory

and critical relation to the catalog, and aided the Department Librarian in the search and selection of books for many years afterwards. Miss Atwood carried on her work with competence and enthusiasm till her retirement, and afterwards, though in fragile health, . did part time work in botanical bibliography till the end of her life in 1947. Although

I did very little before my retirement, in the late 1930s and ag4n in recent e are I have

. been working out some bibliographical puzzles that tantalized me tdrty to f orty years ago Although they may not be so important as they seemed at that time, there has been as much zest as ever in carrying them to completion.

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The loss of the project cannot be called a failure after meeting the needs of btan- ical work in the Department of Agriculture for thirty-five years, and meanwhile becoming I known all over the world; but to one who had been oonxniitted to the universal expansion of botanical bibliography it seems a criminal waste to abandon such an undertaking in an advanced phase, and it rouses an urgent query whether it might not be useful elsewhere, even at the present time. The indexing that was done in response to current needs is a permanent resource, and the fine collection of books obtained by the Department Library through the Literature of Botany project would be of inestimable value to those who knew enough to value, them. Unused resources soon become valueless.

There was never a doubt in the-minds of those who worked on the project that it was worth while, and vm who were in from the beginning were immensely proud of it Some things were not done that we wanted to do, and others were not done as we would have them done, but the deficienc ie s of the work were. outweighed by its berief its to its users. While it has occurred to me in later years that I might have accomplished more with better prep. aration for the task, it worried me very little during my active years on the project; as there was so much to be done that I could do well, that it did not bother me to stumble , a little on a few other features. Neither of us was particularly trained for this kind of bibliographical work, as neither of us had much knbwledge of botzy. We began with the confidence of Dr. Coville, and as time went on secured the interest and criticism of nore and more of the botanists. Our indexing was highly experimental, and while I do not hold that ignorance is an asset, it may be that just because we knew so little of the topics we dealt with, and sought information from our friendly group pf botanists, we got a practical approach to these topics and thereby an intelligible subject arrangement.

It was a successful case of "in-service" training. Unfortunately, some trained botanists did not succeed in such indexing. Two who had done graduate work in botany were employed for current indexing: one in the Main Library, and one in the Bureau of Plant In- dustry, neither of whom seemed able to see the difference between routine subject headings and the actual appeal of a topic to a man working on a particular problem. Miss Atwoods success in this regard was not due to special knowledge, but to interest in individual 49.1 points of view and an intelligent synthesis of related problems. Scientific bibliography calls for close cooperation between bibliographers and scientists.

AL , I r 3/ 1

The bibliographical phase of the project, begun in 1903, was carried on in response . to urgent needs, but its results were not intended to be ephemeral, but to contribute to : comprehensive and universal bibliography of-botany. The book-buying was urgent and tern.m porary because the essential literature was rapidly vanishing from the market. Two sub sequent world wars have made it very clear that few of the botanical books bought by the - Department of Agriculture in the first quarter of the century will ever again be avail able; so the collection is priceless to those who need it, but valueless if unused.

Looking back over a half century, all my experience in the Department of Agriculture was profitable and useful, but the years spent on the Literature of Botany were unquests. ionably the most fruitful and satisfying of my life They were worth 1 iving while they iWsted, and I am satisfied that the project achieved its immediate purpose, but I cannot be perfectly content while the results of the project remain unused.

The Department of Agriculture, while by no means dead, is at present leaving purely scientific investigations, at least in botany, to other institutions. The resources for Smerly indispensable to botanical research are largely ignored, and occupy valuable space in the Department Library. Mho knows when some Hoover,Cornmission may advise that the bos tanical books be junked and the botanical catalog sold for waste paper? Before that hap- pens, might not some of these resources, now basted in the Department, find use and care in some center actively engaged in botanical research? .

During the earlier years of the project there were speculations about possibilities of its semi- independent status • Dr • s position as Botanist of the Department of Agriculture in the nineties gave him the chance to initiate itj but as long as I can remember he must have cherished the aim of organizing the botanical work of the Department and its botanical literature as a separate botanical garden project. I do not recall just when the National Arboretum was first dreamed of, but I was called on from time to time to furnish memoranda and statistics on the organization and functions of the Royal Gardens at Kew, the New York Botanical Garden and similar institutions. Of course the time never one when Dr. Covilles idea could have been realized, because the National Arboretum did not . develop until after plant science work in the Department had reached huge proportions and

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become so coordinated with other scientific projects that it would have been impossible Sto disentangle them. Moreover, it is doubtful that the U. S. Congress would at the time have approved the establishment of an arboretum with such a useless appendage as a botan ical library. However, it might be that in the present attitude of the Congress a botanical library might seem worthless enough to be disposed of by a wave ct the hand.

The agricultural books may seem to present a problem, &i many people might suppose the U. S. Department of Agriculture Library the proper place to conserve the surviving literature of the subject, even though some of it may now be useless. Miss Barnett arid I both felt that this library was the first and often the only place where one would ex- pact to find the most rare and obscure works in this field. But since agriculture orig- inally was mainly plant culture, many of the oldest books are sources of primitive botanical concepts, and were actually used by botanists in my time, and are unlikely to be used by anyone except botanists for many years-to come. I more than once had to make a .. survey of the collections of the Department, ditnguishing books that might have to be duplicated because they were really essential to Department work, and those that might . be spared for more or less permanent deposit elsewhere. It was found that besides the very ancient works on agriculture and gardening, the Prelinnean and many other classes of botanical books, there were a great many botanical and horticultural periodicals that could easily be spared, but which should absolutely be preserved in a library that minis- tered to historical research in any branch of plant science. At the present time it is likely that a much higher proportion of the literature might willingly be spared by the Department Library to another in which it would find more use.

. Perhaps the main question is whether there is any use for this material anywhere? How long will there be any institutions carrying on fundamental research in botany? Is there any chance of preserving intact this once competent catalog and the mass of literature related to it? Is this material likely to be preserved in the U. S. Department of Agriculture against the possibility that in some far-off time it may again be needed in connection with practical and experimental work in botany there?

M.F.W. -- 8/10/55

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