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 in connection with the library, has been organized and is doing efficient work. The archives upon which the foundations of our history rest, and which, up to the present time, have lain about the cellars and out-of-the-way places, being gradually stolen, lost and destroyed, have been gathered together and are now being repaired and permanently secured in volumes chronologically arranged and open to the investigations of scholars. Twenty-two such volumes have already been completed. The information contained in them is much sought by persons all over the country interested in hereditary societies and in research, and much of the time of the attendants is occupied in answering inquiries and supplying information. I suggest that the librarian be directed to charge a fee of two dollars for each certificate given and the sums received be paid into the state treasury for the use of the commonwealth. In this way the department will, to a certain extent, be made self-supporting.

When the new capitol is completed, the building now occupied by the executive will be abandoned by him. Its erection in 1893, cost $500,000, one-ninth of the contemplated cost of the capitol. It is commodious and in many ways artistically constructed, and it presents a good appearance. To remove it would seem to me to be wasteful and unwise, I recommend that it be utilized for the library and that the sphere of the librarian be enlarged and that he be authorized and directed to collect and preserve in it objects illustrating the fauna, flora, entomology, mineralogy, archaeology and arts of the state. Such a collection would have great educational as well as practical value, and be a subject of interest to citizens and strangers visiting the capital. Whenever national or international expositions are held, the state at great outlay makes sudden efforts to gather for the purpose the objects which illustrate her progress. Here would be a supply of such material, not hastily and crudely brought together, but selected with care, thought and deliberation.

The work of the Dairy and Food Division of the Department of Agriculture is of great importance in its relations to the community in every point of view. If deleterious substances may be introduced into the human system in the guise of food, or the supply of nutriment to men, women and children be diminished in order that greater profit may result to the manufacturer and merchant, the spirit of commercialism threatens, not only the welfare, but the existence of the race. On the other hand, the dread of such results may stimulate hasty judgments, unjust to the individual so charged and injurious in its effects upon the 528