DIVISION OF PUBLICATIONS. 389 



Hand" (poultry) ; "The Housewife and Her Business." This serv- 

 ice has been furnished to 2,575 daily and weekly newspapers that 

 have asked to receive it. While it is prim:irih' a daily newspaper 

 service, it is sent also to agricultural journals that request it. 



The need for developing informational services that would carry 

 the department's message to city people brought about the establish- 

 ment of the Special Information Service. It has met a popular 

 demand for stories on how to produce food in backyards and liow 

 to preserve food and use it most economically in the home. Wiiile 

 it was begun during the war as a service for city readers, it has been 

 developed to apply and appeal to people in town and country. Tell- 

 ing stories of food production, both on the farm and in backyards, 

 of marketing problems as they relate to the consumer as well as to 

 the producer, and of household economy on the farm as well as in 

 town has broadened its field of usefulness and has enabled it to serve 

 another purpose — to interest and inform city people of agricultural 

 problems, thereby inspiring a greater respect for the important place 

 of food in our national activities and a better understanding of its 

 production and distribution. 



FOOD AND FARMING WEEKLY. 



In this service, a press clipping sheet released every Monday, we 

 seek to give the press a running account, week by week, of what the 

 Department of Agriculture is doing. It consists of S to 12 short 

 stories, of 200 to 300 words each, about departmental investigations 

 and research. This service attempts to meet the requirements of 

 editors for brevity by telling its stories in the fewest words popn^ble. 

 It is sent to 5,200 publications of all classes that have requested it. 



HOME GARDEN AND CANNING-DRYING SERIES. 



To stimulate home gardening and home preservation of foods, 

 seasonable articles on these subjects are issued to newspapers. They 

 include " how-to-do-it " items and stories of successful experiences 

 that contain helpful ideas. Until the year just closed cuts, mats, and 

 photographic prints of the illustrations used in the service were 

 furnished the newspapers, and the articles were grouped on printed 

 proof sheets in attractive suggestive layouts with illustrations. In- 

 sufficient printing funds prevented the use of illustrations in these 

 services during the year, and they were issued in mimeographed 

 form. Four hundred daily newspapers asked for the material. The 

 year before, when cuts, mats, and photographs were lent, 1,241 news- 

 papers requested the articles. The contrast in these figures indicates 

 how illustrations add to the attractiveness of this material, although 

 the sliortage of newsprint paper probably was a factor in the reduced 

 circulation. 



PLATE SERVICE. 



One of tlie ways in wdiich contact is made with the weekly and 

 small daily newspapers in the country is through the phite and ready- 

 print sorvico of a large news agency. Twenty to twenty-five columns 

 of matter with illustrations are furnished to this concern weekly. In 

 addition to this specially prepared material, proofs and illustrations 

 of the Special Information Service are furnished, and this matter is 



