378 ANNUAL ri':ports of department of agriculture. 



LEGISLATION AFFECTS PERIODICALS. 



The sundry civil act of March 4, 1921, carried a provision to tlie 

 effect that all Government periodicals not specifically authorized by 

 Congress by December 1, 1921, should be suspended on that date, 

 A bill providing for the continuance of these periodicals passed the 

 Senate but was not acted on in the House before adjournment, and 

 on December 1 the law went into effect. All periodicals issued by the 

 department were temporarily suspended. Subsequently a ruling 

 by the Congressional Joint Committee on Printing permitted the 

 publication of such statistical and administrative matter as might 

 be certified by the Secretary of Agriculture as being necessary for 

 the conduct of the routine business of the department. Under this 

 permission the proposed combination of the Crop Eeporter, the Mar- 

 ket Eeporter, and the National Weather and Crop Bulletin into a 

 weekly publication known as Weather, Crops, and Markets, was made 

 effective January 1. The Weekly News Letter was discontinued, and 

 a house organ called the Official Record was inaugurated on that 

 date, while the continuance of the Experiment Station Record, the 

 Monthly Weather Review, and the Clip Sheet was secured. Permis- 

 sion was not secured for the continued publication of the Good Roads 

 Magazine, the Journal of Agricultural Research, and the Special 

 Information Service, and publication of these periodicals had not 

 been resumed at the end of the fiscal year. Legislation in the spring 

 of 1922 provided that periodicals might be issued by the heads of 

 departments upon the approval of the Bureau of the Budget, but 

 formal approval by that bureau of periodicals had not been received 

 on June 30, 1922. 



PRINTING FUNDS RETURNED TO TREASURY. 



The regular printing and binding fund for the fiscal year 1922 was 

 $725,000. There was also available the deficiency appropriation of 

 $125,000 made during the latter part of the fiscal year 1921 but not 

 used in that year. Thus, the department had $850,000 available for 

 printing. In accordance with instructions from the vSecretary the 

 deficiency appropriation was held primarily for the purpose of pub- 

 lishing manuscripts which had accumulated in the department be- 

 cause of the lack of printing funds. Approximately $184,000 of 

 the printing fund was returned to the Treasury. 



EDITORIAL FORCE MUST BE STRENGTHENED. 



The editorial work was handicapped by the resignation, in the fall 

 of 1921, of the chief editor, who left the department to take a position 

 in the War Finance Corporation, paying a salary 50 per cent larger 

 than he had received here. The place was vacant two months before 

 a competent person was found. So far as the prompt preparation of 

 copy and the transmittal of manuscripts to the Public Printer is con- 

 cerned the editorial work has been in a fairly satisfactory condition. 

 It has been, and is, however, seriously handicapped by a shortage of 

 capable editors. Up to this time it has not been possible to find well- 

 auaJified persons who would accept the small salaries available. 



