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 Issued January 1(5, 1911. 
 
 ^-Department of Agriculture, 
 
 •XPpiMENT STATIONS— Circular 107. 
 C. True, Director. 
 
 THE CARD INDEX OF EXPERIMENT STATION LITERATURE. 
 
 It is the purpose of this circular to outline briefly the general plan 
 of the subject index of experiment station literature regularly issued 
 in card form by this Office, and to state the conditions governing the 
 distribution and sale of the index. 
 
 The index at the present time covers only the publications of the 
 agricultural experiment stations in the United States, Alaska, Hawaii, 
 and Porto Rico. Of these publications the index includes all regular, 
 special, technical, and research bulletins and the reports, but not such 
 publications as circulars and press bulletins, except as these are re- 
 printed in the other publications mentioned. Publications of this 
 Department and of state boards or departments of agriculture are 
 therefore not included. The index begins with the publication of 
 the stations for the year 1888, and is kept as nearly up to date as is 
 practicable. 
 
 The index comprises thirteen primary divisions, as follows: (1) 
 General sciences, (2) air and water, (3) soils, (4) fertilizers, (5) 
 plants, (6) foods, (7) animals, (8) entomology, (9) dairying, (10) 
 technology, (11) agricultural engineering, (12) statistics, and (13) 
 miscellaneous. These subjects have been divided and subdivided only 
 so far as seemed necessary to facilitate reference to the individual 
 entries of the index. Under general sciences are placed only such 
 entries as relate to the general principles of the various sciences which 
 lie at the foundation of experimental investigations in agriculture. 
 Under statistics are included the entries relating to the organization, 
 equipment, and general operations of the stations. The other pri- 
 mary divisions provide for the articles relating more directly to the 
 agricultural and economic investigations. The plan of the index 
 permits the addition of reference to any literature relating to agricul- 
 ture, and also affords a wide opportunity for the extension of the 
 index by individual students for their own special purposes. 
 
 Each of the divisions, as a rule, contains entries for all the im- 
 portant articles on the subject. In some cases, however, an article, 
 especially of a popular nature, may deal with several subjects and be 
 indexed only under the most important phase of the work. As an 
 illustration of this point, an article dealing with the use of fertilizers 
 for field crops on certain -oil- may appear under only one of the 
 headings — Fertilizers, Field Crop-, or Soil-. This has been necessary 
 
 711 3.j a — Cir. 107— 11 
 
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 
 
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 in order to keep the number of cards within reasonable limits. Where 
 the index, however, is used in its entirety, as planned, cross references 
 lessen the difficulty from this source. The divisions and subdivisions 
 are arranged on a decimal system and are plainly indicated by the 
 use of division cards of different colors. 
 
 The index is printed on cards 2 by 5 inches in size. Each index 
 card contains an appropriate title, the author of the article, a reference 
 to the publication in which it appeared and to the Experiment Sta- 
 tion Record in which an abstract of the article may be found, and a 
 condensed statement of its contents. At the upper right-hand corner 
 of the card is a number indicating under what heading the card 
 should be placed in the index. The order in which the cards are 
 printed is indicated at the lower left-hand corner. 
 
 One copy of the index is sent without charge to each of the agri- 
 cultural colleges and experiment stations and to several of the state 
 boards and commissions of agriculture. 
 
 Besides this free distribution, the Office is prepared, under authority 
 of the law, to furnish a limited number of complete sets of the index 
 at the price of $2 per thousand cards. For the colored division cards 
 an additional charge of $1.25 is made. Sets of division cards and 
 31,400 index cards, bringing the index up, approximately, to Novem- 
 ber 1, 1910, are available, and one of these sets will be sent to any 
 address upon receipt of $64.05. Subscribers for the complete index 
 are informed when each successive lot of 1,000 cards is ready for dis- 
 tribution; while subscribers for separate divisions are notified about 
 once a year as to the number of cards accumulated since the last con- 
 signment. Only 270 copies of the index are printed. 
 
 On account of the increasing demand for separate divisions of the 
 index, arrangements have been made for reprinting certain divisions 
 or parts of divisions. This Office is therefore prepared to furnish a 
 limited number of divisions of the index at a price oidy sufficient to 
 cover additional cost of printing, namely, $3 per thousand, with a 
 charge of 1 cent each for colored division cards. 
 
 A key to the index, containing the system of classification, is sent 
 on application. 
 
 Make payments in advance by United States postal order in favor 
 of A. Zappone, Disbursing Officer, and forward in envelopes ad- 
 dressed to the Director of the Office of Experiment Stations. 
 
 Respectfully submitted. A. C. True, 
 
 Director. 
 
 Approved. 
 
 James Wilson, 
 
 Secretary of Agriculture. 
 
 [Cir. 107] 
 
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