6. Printed at Government Printing Office. 7. Number of copies printed of last issue: 2,000. 8. Distributed free to libraries of agricultural institutions and Government repositories. Subscriptions received by superintendent of documents, not received by the department. Total number of subscriptions to date received by superintendent of documents, 258. 9. Annual receipts from subscriptions received by superintendent of documents, not by department. 10. Annual expense for printing and issuing the publication: Estimated expenses for the previous fiscal year were $24,000. 11. Annual cost of preparing publication for printing: $3,700. 12. Total cost of publication: $27,700; to be reduced on basis of weekly publication to about $8,000 a year. 13. Printed at Government Printing Office. 14. Publication is not a duplication of any other publication. 15. Technical specialists, both within and without the department, have found the Journal extremely valuable for recording investigations bearing directly or indirectly upon agricultural problems. The method of distribution of the Journal reduces to probably the lowest possible figure consistent with effective distribution to technical men the cost of satisfactorily recording contributions and advances to the theory and practice of agriculture that have resulted from the individual contributions of scientific research men. The Journal differs from the Experiment Station Record in that the Record digests and publishes accomplishments in agricultural experimentation in the United States and throughout the world, while the Journal is limited to papers on scientific agricultural progress in the United States. The one is a record; the other is a stimulus to scientific research. The Journal has achieved a rather unusual recognition among specialists both in this country and abroad, and even the temporary discontinuance of this publication would seriously interfere with its value. In the interest of economy, the Journal is published monthly instead of weekly, effective April 1, until such time as printing funds will permit weekly publication to be resumed. This Journal was established after very careful consideration both on the part of the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary and by different committees appointed for the purpose of revising the previous methods of department publication. It had become apparent both inside and outside the department that technical papers were frequently distributed to persons but little interested in them, and frequently the early exhaustion of editions of technical papers made it exceedingly difficult for later investigators in other agricultural institutions to consult these papers. In an effort to establish a more satisfactory permanence of record for new data, especially for the benefit of permanent libraries of agricultural institutions, and also to improve our contacts with foreign agricultural departments and institutions by directing the exchange of the Journal of Agricultural Research for the foreign publications, the Journal was established in 1913 by order of the Secretary, and the first issue appeared on October 10, 1913. In accordance with an understanding entered into by the Secretary with the executive committee of agricultural colleges and experiment stations, in this first number the further statement was made that plans were underway for including in this journal technical papers prepared and submitted by investigators in the State agricultural experiment stations. PUBLIC ROADS. 1. Name of publication: Public Roads. 3. Issued by the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Public Roads. 4. Authorized by act of March 2, 1895. 5. Date of first issue: May, 1918. 6. Printed at the Government Printing Office. 7. Number of copies printed each issue: 4,000. 8. Distributed as follows: To officials, 95 per cent of whom are State, county, and township officials directly interested in the design, construction, and maintenance of highways, 3,059; congressional list, 531; libraries, 135; total, 3,725. 9. Subscriptions are handled by the superintendent of documents, Government Printing Office, and at this time number 102 for which $153 has been received. 10. Average cost per issue this fiscal year has been $532.12, or $6,385.44 per year. 11. The chief of the editorial division was in the employ of the department for nearly two years before the first number of Public Roads was issued. In the reorganization of the division an editorial assistant at $1,920 a year replaced a librarian rated as a clerk at $1,720 a year. About one-third of the time of both editor and assistant is devoted to the magazine, or a salary charge of $1,620 per year. To this may be added about $200 per year travel expense in gathering material for publication. Thus, total expense is about $1,820 per year. 12. Total of items 10 and 11: $8,205.44. 13. Printed at Government Printing Office. 14. The publication in no way duplicates, in whole or in part, any other Government publication, nor does it in the slightest respect relate to work which some other branch of the Government service has undertaken or by law is authorized to perform. 15. By act of Congress, the duty of administering the Federal aid road act, which appropriated $75,000,000, and the amendment thereto, which appropriated an additional $200,000,000, was placed upon the Department of Agriculture. This duty was thereupon assigned to the Bureau of Public Roads. It is obvious that to administer this vast fund, supervise the construction of thousands of miles of highway, and advise in the planning of adequate systems to the best advantage of the States and the Federal Government, the bond between the respective State highway organizations and the Federal Government should be of the closest and their relations be most harmonious. An authoritative publication such as Public Roads is the most facile means toward this end. Research work and the results attained by each State is of inestimable value to the highway builders of other States. Before the first issue of Public Roads there was no official and authoritative medium through which such knowledge could be disseminated. With a vast amount of money available for road construction and the consequent tremendous impetus to highway improvement, it became necessary to preserve a complete and current record of Federal aid activities. This could be done in no other way better than by such a publication as Public Roads. Information gathered by the engineers of the Bureau of Public Roads is often of great value to highway officials only when its publication is timely. Such information very often is not sufficient to warrant the publication of a department bulletin, because of its lack of volume. To withhold such information until sufficient bulk is gathered to form a department bulletin and then await the time of the issue of such a bulletin, which usually averages five months from the date of sufficient manuscript, would serve to make such information valueless and be an injustice to both the Government and the State authorities. MONTHLY CROP REPORTER. 1. Name of publication: Monthly Crop Reporter. 3. Issued by the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Crop Esti mates. 4. Authorized by act of March 2, 1895. 5. Date of first issue: May, 1899. 6. Printed at Government Printing Office. 7. Number of copies printed of last issue: 183,500. 8. Subscriptions: None. 9. Distribution: Official list (requests of Senators and Members of Congress), about__- Reserve, for correspondence and miscellaneous demands, about__‒‒‒‒ Total 700 177, 200 177,900 5, 600 183, 500 9. Annual receipts from subscriptions: None. 10. Annual expense of printing and issuing: $27,223.40. 11. Annual cost of preparing the publication for printing: Estimated at $1,000. 12. Total annual cost of publication: $28,223.40. 13. Printed at Government Printing Office. 14. It is not a duplication in whole or in part of any Government publication, and it does not relate to work which some other branch of the Government service has undertaken or is authorized by law to perform; except that occasional short paragraphs relating to agriculture are quoted from reports of the Department of Commerce and other departments, in order that such information may be made more available to the voluntary crop reporters, who constitute the bulk of the readers of the Monthly Crop Reporter. 15. It is recommended that the publication of the Monthly Crop Reporter be continued (1) because it is the only official publication giving the crop estimates of the Federal Government; (2) these estimates are necessary for the intelligent growing, selling, and buying of agricultural products; and (3) these estimates afford definite measures of the results of agriculture, for the information of the commercial world, for the use of legislators, Federal and State Departments of Agriculture, State colleges of agriculture and extension services, county agents, State and local associations of farmers. and live-stock growers, and others. Inasmuch as the Government crop and live stock reports and estimates depend for their economic value to producers, distributors, and consumers, on their timeliness and their prompt and widespread distribution, and as the value of much information, especially such as relates to sudden crop damage, is lost by withholding it for the monthly publication, and as estimates of perishable crop production, such as fruit and truck crops, are desired at short intervals, it is recommended that the Monthly Crop Reporter be continued and issued weekly after June 30, 1919, under the title "Weekly Crop Reporter." The need for a weekly publication was not urgent until the Bureau of Crop Estimates undertook and developed a crop reporting service, especially for commercial fruit production and for truck-crop production in 1915 and 1916, and established a Weekly Truck Crop News in 1918. The Weekly Truck Crop News is issued in multigraph form at greater expense than would be the cost of printing. The service to the public, especially producers, would be greatly enhanced in timeliness and value by the weekly publication of crop and live-stock estimates. SEED REPORTER. 1. Name of publication: Seed Reporter. 2. Issued monthly. 3. Issued by the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Markets Seed Reporting Service. 4. Authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture under the food production act (sec. 2 of Public, No. 40, 65th Cong.). 5. Date of first issue: November, 1917. 6. Printed by the Tucker-Kenworthy Co., Chicago. 7. Number of copies printed of last issue: 25,000. 8. Distribution: Approximately 5,000 copies are for official distribution to governmental and State agencies; 20,000 for free public use. 9. Annual receipts from subscriptions: None. 10. Annual expense of printing and issuing: Approximately $4,500. 11. Indirectly the larger amount expended by the Seed Reporting Service might be charged to the printing of the Seed Reporter, but inasmuch as much material is not published, it is thought best to give an estimate of the direct cost of preparing the publication for printing, which is approximately $3,000. 12. Total annual cost of publication: Estimated to be $7,500. 13. Inasmuch as the Seed Reporting Service is a field service and has for its object the dissemination of seed information as economically and efficiently as possible, it is urgently necessary that the Seed Reporter be printed at some point where the distribution will be synchronized as much as possible. Because of the central location and excellent mail service at Chicago, that city was selected at which to print the Seed Reporter. The Seed Reporter is mailed on the first 14. The Seed Reporter does not duplicate the work of any other 15. The Seed Reporter has filled a long-felt want, affording infor- FOOD SURVEYS. 1. Name of publication: Food Surveys. 2. Issued monthly, and in addition approximately 10 special issues 3. Issued by the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Markets, 4. Authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture under the food pro- 5. Date of first issue: April 29, 1918. 6. Printed by Industrial Printing Co., Baltimore, Md. 7. Number of copies printed of last issue: 18,000 copies printed of 8. Distribution: Öfficial circulation, 9,000 copies; free public cir- 9. Annual receipts from subscriptions: None. 10. Annual expense of printing and issuing: Estimated cost dur- 11. Annual cost of preparing publication for printing: Estimated 12. Total annual cost of publication: Estimated $33,162.20. |