Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-06
THE REAL "BEST SELLERS"
By Frederic J. Haskin
From Life, July 90.

A T the end of every year it is the
~ practice of book publishers to go
over their lists and to give to
! the waiting world the names of the
| six best sellers for the past year
To have written a book that appears
on this list Is considered a very great
honor; to have written more than
one of the six is an achievement which
very few authors have ever accom-
plished.
But there is an author who pub
fishes his own books in Washington
and who annually writes at least two
best sellers" which eclipse in sales
any other publications in this coun-
| try. True, his works are not classified
under the head of Fiction" but. they
are intensely interesting to those who
read them, and the demand for them
grows year by year until now the call
| for this authors work of four or five
years ago is greater than it ever was
and it is steadily increasing.
The author is Uncle Sam. Ask the
average follower of literature what is
the best selling book ever published
in the United States and he will prob
ably hazard guesses running all the
way from Uncle Toms Cabin" to
"Quo Vadis." He may possibly in
clude "Trilby" or the Bible in his at
tempt to answer your question. But
the truth of the matter is that the
best selling book ever published in the
United States, judging by the length
of time it has been available, Is The
Economical Use of Meat in the
Home" compiled and printed by the
Department of Agriculture.
Attack OH Living Costs
Uncle Sans Cook Book" as the
volume is called by the hundreds of
persons who write for ii every day,
| is q handbook on economy-an at
tack upon the high cost of living. It
| is selling at, a minimum rate of
quarter of million copies a year and
when 1t Is considered that the vol
ume has been available for several
years and that the circulation jumped
to half a million copies when the book
received a large amount of newspaper
and magazine publicity a couple of
years ago, 1t will be seen that its
claim to be a BEST Seller" is clear
one.
But 1.-THE Economical Use of Meat
| in the Home is not the only best
seller that Uncle Sam has to his
credit. There are at least dozen
other publications Issued by the De-
partment of Agriculture that top the
hundred thousand mark every year,
and will probably continue to sell at
this rate for a decade to come.
How to Grow an Acre of Corn"
and Hints for Poultry Raisers" for
example, exceeded the meat book in
popularity last year, but they are
more recent publications and there
fore cannot be said to have withstood
the test of time as we'll as has the
other book. But, even so, the Depart
ment of Agriculture averages nearly
thousand copies a day of these pub
lications, in addition to the tremen-
dous number of other publications
prepared for those in need of them.
Other governmental best sellers, in
the order of their popularity are:
Canned Fruits, Preserves and Jel-
lies" Canning Vegetables in the
Home" Poultry Management" Can
ming Tomatoes at Home" "Prepara-
ton of Vegetables for the Table"
standard Varieties of Chickens" Pig
Management" Meats; Their Com
position and Cooking" and Meat on
the Farm: Butchering, Curing and
Keeping"
Food of Prime Interest
Food, it will be seen, is the chief
interest of those who patroniZe the
largest book store in the world. To
date, the Department of Agriculture
has issued more than six hundred
pamphlets relating to problems affect
ing the farmer. These range in in
terest from fish to frost, from cheese
making to the cultivation of casaba
melons, from barley to bees; they in
clude treatises on unfamiliar subjects
like lespedeza Japanese clover),
sudan grass and soy beans and also
authoritative information as to the
best methods of preventing corosion
of wire fences, shipping eggs by par
eel post, or the determination of
grasshoppers.
Prepared by Experts
One of the great reasons for the de-
mand for Uncle Sans publications is
because every one of the six hundred
or more bulletins has been prepared
by an expert in the employ of the
government, and the majority of them
are illustrated with photographs made
at the governmental experiment
farms. The government countenances
the publication of no theoretical
works. Everything that is written
has to be the work of an authority in
that particular line, and every book
and pamphlet is twice revised by
other experts. thus assuring absolute
accuracy upon all points The price
at which these authoritative publica-
tons are distributed ranges from a
simple request for the book up to a
dollar. This price depends upon the
cost of production, Uncle Sam aiming
to distribute his pamphlets without
profit to the government. The franz
ers' bulletins are. as a rule, supplied
at the cheapest rate.
The total cost of printing the pub
lications OF the Department of Agri-
culture during the past year, accord
ing to the report of Joseph A. Arnold,
chief Of the Bureau of Publications