The St. Charles herald., 1918-12-21
BULLETINS CAIN
FARMERS FAVOR
Many Photographs and Attrac-
tive Exteriors Used to Make
information Effective.
POWER IN PRINTED MATTER
Scientific Facts Told in Popular Form
and Short Sentences Are Replae-
ina Intricate and Verbose
Language.

When a locomotive engineer makes
mis- 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 in
terest when Farmers Bulletin No. 1000
recently was made ready for public
distribution.
There was no effort to make No.
1000 bulletin Of signal moment, one
that would be read from cover to COW
er and from coast to coast. In fact
"Crop Systems for Arkansas" which
is the name of No. 1000, will have
rather limited distribution, because the
information it contains is Of value in
only part Of the United States. But
all the same, No. 1000 is noteworthy,
not only because 1t is No. 1000, but be-
cause it is a sample of the products
of q new policy under which depart
ment of agriculture publications are
being gotten out, and that aims TO
make them not only informing and de-
pendable, but attractive and interest
ing, and, therefore, effective.
Bulletin Has Innovations.
No. 1000 has an illustrated cover
page, similar in character to those
that invite perusal to all farmers bull
letins now being issued. 1t has Illus
trations inside that seek not only to
break the lines of type, but to demon
strate something better than the type
can tell about it. This Is not to say
that previous bulletins have not been
effective and have not contained In
forming illustrations. But 1t Is De-
Iieved that on the average farmers
bulletins now are "batting" better than
ever before because every effort Is
being made to ''put across" In popular
and telling form the agricultural infor-
nation developed by the scientists OF
the department.
Bulletins have been shortened ma
terially. Historical notes have been
largely 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
replacing intricate and verbose Ian
puage. These changes carry out the
impression given by the attractive COW
ers, which were adopted for the mere
purpose Of advertising the wares OF
the department to be found inside.
This is proceeding on the assumption
that people in general are not SO keen
about reading government 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 farmers bulletins which are
strictly neutrality-suspicious. books.
They are not so complete in 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 farm
er to adjust his work to the labor sit
uation of war time.
Valuable in Cities, Too.
The farmers bulletins are issued to
help farmers and their families In
their daily tasks, but some of them
nre said to be quite as valuable to
the city family. AS instances, take
the bulletins dealing with canning
methods, IL" common household ro-
dents ard insects, and ways Of eco
nolnicaliy nsing various foods. Re