official work, or telegrams regarding any other matters of a personal nature, are not public dispatches and payment therefor is not authorized. Telegrams from employees of the department regarding the serious illness or death of employees are official.

47. Bills for telegraphic service should show the period of service, with the number of messages and cost thereof. Either the original messages or copies thereof must be filed in support of the vouchers. The correctness of any account must be verified by the certificate of an officer of the department cognizant of the facts in the case.

48. Payment for telegrams must be made only at the rates shown in the schedule of rates prescribed by the Postmaster General. (See Appendix D.) If for any reason a message could be transmitted more cheaply at commercial rates, those rates should be used. Employees should avail themselves of night rates whenever practicable and day or night letters whenever more economical.

RADIOGRAMS AND CABLEGRAMS.

49. When necessary to send messages by cable or wireless, use as few words as possible and resort to a code when practicable.

TELEPHONE.

50. When telephonic. service, either local or long distance, is found to be cheaper than telegraphic service, the telephone should be utilized, but neither telephone nor telegraph should be employed unless the exigencies of the service require a speedier mode of communication than the mails afford.

51. No employee shall be reimbursed for telephone service installed in any private residence or private apartment or for tolls or other charges for telephone service from private residences or private apartments, except for long-distance telephone tolls required strictly for the public business and so shown by vouchers duly sworn

to and approved by the Secretary, or by the chief of the bureau in which the official using such telephone or incurring the expense of such tolls is employed. A residence or apartment is private when set apart for the exclusive use of one person or of such person and his family. Where an employee, however, having no other office or official headquarters, uses one or more rooms in his private residence exclusively for office purposes and as a public office, the payment for use of telephone service installed therein for his official use only is not prohibited.

EXPRESS.

52. The express should be used only when the postal service can not be employed and freight service will not answer the needs of the department.

53. Express charges on property sent from or consigned to the department at Washington, D. C., should not be paid by the person sending or receiving the property; express companies will include such shipments in their monthly bills. If the expense of an express ship=ment between points outside of Washington, D. C., is a proper charge against the letter of authorization or allotment of the employee making the shipment he will pay the charges, take a receipt therefor stating articles, weight, rate, scale number, starting point, and destination, and include the expense in his next reimbursement account for field expenses; if a proper charge against the letter of authorization or allotment of the receiver, the shipment should be made "collect" and the receiver should make payment, take similar receipt, and secure reimbursement in the same manner.

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54. When the actual value of the express shipment is in excess of fifty dollars the actual value should be declared and the increased express charge paid by the department. When the value of the property is under fifty dollars, no value should be declared, unless a lower rate may thereby be obtained.

FREIGHT.

55. Shipments of freight from the department at Washington, D. C., to points in the field will be on the regular department bill of lading.

56. Whenever practicable shipments of freight from one employee in the field to another employee in the field must be made on the regular department bill of lading, which will be furnished by the chief of bureau, or official in charge of a field station, on request. Payment of freight charges on shipments made on department bills of lading will be made to the railroads through the Washington office by the Treasury Department and should never be made by the employee in the field. When payment of charges is demanded by the transportation company from the shipper or the consignee and department bill of lading is not used, the procedure prescribed in paragraph 53 for express shipments will be followed, stating in addition the freight classification; provided, that when shipments are made between points outside of Washington, D. C., the use of the department bill of lading will not be required if the total charges for the transportation do not exceed one dollar, unless the route of shipment is over land-grant or bond-aided railroads. (See Appendix F for map.)

57. Shipments from dealers of freight, on which the charges are to be paid by the department, must be made, when practicable, on the department bill of lading which will be made up at the department, or at field stations, and sent to the dealer with the purchase order. Freight charges should not be prepaid by the dealer in such cases.

58. Shipments to Washington, D. C., on arrival will be delivered from the several freight depots to the bureaus of the department, the chief of the supply division directing the driver to the proper bureau when necessary. When practicable, shipments from Washington, D. C., will be handled by the department wagons. In every case

when drayage charges are involved the driver must be furnished by the bureau a dray ticket properly filled in and signed by an employee of the bureau designated for the purpose in such a manner as will fully identify the shipment. These dray tickets must be attached to the account of the drayage company for their charges when presented for payment.

59. No cash payments shall be made for freight transportation in whole or in part over land-grant or bondaided railroads, or lines equalizing rates therewith.

60. Shipments from or to the department across the Atlantic Ocean should be consigned “In care U. S. Dispatch Agent, No. 2 Rector Street, New York, N. Y.," and that official should be promptly notified of the shipment and carefully instructed as to the further disposition of the property.

61. All freight accounts, after an administrative examination in the bureau to which they pertain, will be forwarded through the disbursing clerk of the department to the auditor for the State and other departments for direct settlement.

PACKING AND MARKING OF SHIPMENTS.

62. Goods for shipment, whether by express or by ordinary freight, should be securely packed, and all packages should be plainly marked with the name and address of the consignee, and, in addition thereto, the words "Property of the (name of bureau), U. S. Department of Agriculture. Shipments destined to Washington, D. C., should be addressed to the "Bureau of U. S. Department of Agriculture," and not to individuals. Proper shipping labels will be provided on request.

STATION EXPENSES.

63. Officials in charge of stations will be given letters of authorization to incur such station expenses as may be necessary to the proper and efficient transaction of the

business with which they may be charged. The phrase "station expenses 99 will be construed to embrace the following items:

(a) Express, freight, drayage, and similar charges on public property.

(b) Necessary postage on official correspondence, including special delivery and registration fees on public property and official communications.

(c) Necessary repairs to public property and storage charges on same.

(d) Telegraphic and telephonic messages on official business.

(e) The purchase of stationery (except envelopes), small articles, and such other incidental expenses as may be necessary to the proper conduct of the office, including gas, electric current, oil, fuel, ice, soap, towels and washing same, towel service, matches, brooms, water, ink, mucilage, and janitor service subject to the civil-service rules.

64. In special cases letters of authorization may include office or laboratory rent, rental of tools, implements and machinery, rental of telephone, post-office box rent, the purchase of furniture, services of stenographers and typewriters for strictly temporary periods, street-car fares when traveling on official business at official station, and such unusual expenses as may be necessary to the proper conduct of the work.

65. An account for the rent of land, buildings, or room should contain a concise description of the premises rented, a statement of the period (with inclusive dates) for which payment of rent is claimed, and a specific reference to the lease, contract, or other written agreement upon which the claim is based. If no lease or formal agreement of any kind be involved, reference should be made to the letter of authorization under which the expense has been incurred. If the premises be held under a lease, the voucher should be prepared in the name of the lessor, whether he be the owner or merely the agent for the owner;