Evening star., 1946-06-02
Yearbook Editor.
Runs Small Farm
In LOudOun County

Alfred D. Stefferude, editor of the
Yearbook of Agriculture, being pre-
pared for the printers this year
after a wartime lapse of four years,
lives and does much of his work In
161-year-old stone house at Hills
boro, Loudoun County, Va.
"Steff," as he is known to his as
sociates in the Agriculture Depart
ment, is combining the operation of
a six-acre farm" with his editorial
duties, and like many of neighbors,
who have slight edge on him since
farming is their one and only busi-
ness, he is having his difficulties.
His house, perched on a steep
slope overlooking the north fork of
Cotoctin Creek and the ruins of a
grist mill that served Loudoun
farmers in the Revolutionary War
period, is surrounded by fields that
need attention. At present there is
the garden, an orchard and the lawn.
Soon, he hopes, there will be other
cultivated plots to round out an in
tensely cultivated small estate pro-
viding the essentials of good coun-
try living.
Steff bought his Hillsboro place
last summer, and after a winter of
commutingmore than As miles a day
to his office in the Agriculture De-
partment, he still insists that it's a
better life than he led as an As
sociated Press correspondent in Ber-
lin and Vienna and later in New
York. Mrs. Stefferude and their
three children, David, Johnny and
Christine, agree.
A slow-speaking, methodical Min
nesotan, Steff joined the Associated
Press in Des Moines and was sent
to Europe in 1882. He covered much
of Hitler's rise to power before re-
turning to New York in 1888.
After two years on the cable desk
in the New York AP bureau, he
came with Agriculture, but during
the war, left the department for a
time to serve with the Office of War
Information in London He re-
turned after the war, and when
Cove Hambidge, former Yearbook
editor, transferred to another de-
partment, Steff took over his desk.
The new Yearbook, covering the
period from 1943 to 1947, will sur
vey the scientific research and de-
velopments in agriculture.
1--WE will tell Americans in gen.
eral," Steff said, about the chal-
lenge of war production to farmers,
the Department of Agriculture, and
other agricultural workers, and how
magnifcently the challenge was met.
THE Yearbook will contain a
wealth of information on how to live
better and work better, about food,
clothing, houses, gardens, pests,
forests and new processes. 1t will
review and appraise agricultural
science and give directions to later
research"
Steff explained that the Year
book, of which 250,00O copies will be
printed, will differ slightly from
former volumes in that the focus will
be on the authoritative articles con-
tributed by department scientists.
There will be articles on new
knowledge about horses and mules,
new developments on weed control,
a survey of recent soil and plant
research, on insect and pest control
facts on animal nutrition and on
animal breeding. There also will be
articles on new farm engineering
Itechniques, such as new prefabri-
Gated farm buildings. new wood pre-
servatives and new Developments in
paints. The book will survey the
new products that have been de-
veloped and new uses that have been
found for old products.
Another important charge in the
Yearbook will be the use of photo
graphs. Pictures, where possible,
will show action, and sections that
tell a Photographic story will be
included.
The material is almost ready for
the printer. who will require about
six weeks to finish the job. And
then work will begin in earnest on
tho 1Qd9 Won rhcok