The annual or biennial reports now authorized or required to be printed by the several State agencies and institutions shall be as compact and concise as is consistent with an intelligent understanding of the work of those agencies and institutions. The details of the work of the agencies and institutions shall not be printed when not necessary to an intelligent understanding of such work, but totals and results may be tabulated and printed in their reports. (1911, c. 211, s. 2; 1917, c. 202, s. 2; C.S., s. 7294; 1931, c. 261, s. 3; 1955, c. 983; 1961, c. 243, s. 2; 1983, c. 866, s. 1.)