The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-14
Value of Bulletins

When a locomotive engineer makes his thousandth run he remembers the day. When an actor plays his thou sandth night he rings the date on the calendar. The thousandth in anything is noteworthy. So it was that in the United States department of agricul- ture there was more than ordinary m terest when Farmers Bulletin No looo recently was made ready for publica- tion.
 There was no effort to make NO. lVVo a bulletin of signal moment, one that would be read from cover to cover ana from coast to coast. In fact, Crop Sys- tems for Arkansas" which is the name or Noi100O, will have rather l1m1teo ais tribution, because the informatlon It : contains if of value in only part oA the United States. But all the sa.io' No 1000 is noteworthy, not only pc cause it is a sample of the prooucts o1 a new policy under which department of agricuIture publications are belng gotten out, and that aims to make them not only informing and dependaole' put attractive and interesting, and, there fore, effective.
 HAS INNOVATION
 No. 1000 has an illustrated cover page, similar in character to those that in yite perusal to all farmers bulletins now being issued. It has illustrations inside that seek not only to break the lines of type, but to demonstrate some thing better than the type can tell about it. This Is not to say that pre- vious bulletins have not been effective and have not contained informing H. lustrations. But it is believed that on the average farmers bulletins now are "batting'' better than ever before be- cause every effort is being made to put across" in popular and tell1ng form the agricultural Information developed by the scientists of the department.
 Bulletins have been shortened mate rially. Historical notes have been large ly eliminated. Latin phrases have been dropped except in rare instances when they are inserted in parentheses to help identify some insect or disease easily confused Short sentences are replac- ing intricate and verbose language. These changes carry out the impression given by tho attractive covers. which were adopted for tho mere purpose of advertising the wares of the department to be found inside. This is proceeding on the, assumption that people in gener- al are not1so keen about reading gov ernment publications-no matter how authoritative-that they will sit up nights doing it when something much more attractive is near at hand
 Recently the department has issued several farmer bulletins which are strictly nnovations-picture books They are not SO complete iny pictures of farm operations that they give a motion picture effect when thumbed rapidly, but they do show many short cuts in laborious farm operations They are suggestive, with enough ex- plantation to enable the ingenious farmer to adjust his work to the labor situation of war time.
 VALUABLE IN CITIES, TOO
 The farmers bulletins are issued te help farmers and their families in theiI daily tasks, but some of them are said to be quite as valuable to the city fam fly. As instances, take the bulletins dealing with canning methods, the com mon household rodents and insects, and ways of economically using various foods. Requests for them by thes core are received from town women wht have seen them in neighbors' homes.
 These are not all the publications o1 the department. During the war a mum Der of circulars and pamphlets having a direct bearing on winning the strug @ gle are being issued. Then there art the professional bulletins, dealing il less popular form with researches into the science of agriculture. In addition there are several serial publication and the annual reports and other con gressional publications. including thu department yearbook and reports of soi surveys. The policy of reducing in sig and making more readable has been ex tended through all these classes.
 Lists of available bulletins, iron which selections can be made, will b, sent to Interested persons on reques to the department