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 sim- ilar 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 litera- ture 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 be- fore 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 pri- vate 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 li- brarians 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 li- braries 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 buil- ding, 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 be- gan 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 prac- tical 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 introduc- tion to the handling of dates and titles in citations of scientific literature. -7- ' 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.