56 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES 



principles about their business, agricultural news both local 

 and general and special information of a timely character. 

 The usual means of supplying these needs are bulletins, 

 mostly supplied by the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture and the agricultural colleges and experiment sta- 

 tions, special local publications as farm bureau "Newses," 

 "Exchanges" and bulletins, the local press, and correspond- 

 ence including circular letters. 



BULLETINS 



Bulletins are somewhat in disrepute nowadays on ac- 

 count of their reputation for being dry and uninteresting 

 documents, and they are therefore being replaced more or 

 less by the more interestingly and popularly written press 

 articles. But it must not be forgotten that the bulletin 

 has been one of the chief means of recording and distribut- 

 ing accurate and valuable records of agricultural truths 

 acquired through years of painstaking experimental work. 

 And it will probably continue to be so, even though it is 

 a difficult task to prepare bulletins which will meet the 

 wide variety of needs even in a single subject. There is 

 also danger of misundertanding what is written through 

 lack of personal contact and the absence of necessary ex- 

 planations. But after all it is not the form but the con- 

 tent of a publication that counts. If the bulletin contains 

 valuable facts or needed information it will be read, al- 

 though of course the more interestingly it is written the 

 more likely it is to be read. In the last analysis one who 

 wants definite or detailed information will want to have it 

 in written or printed form. As supplying such informa- 

 tion and for ready reference the bulletin is indispensable. 



Both the agricultural colleges and the United States 

 Department of Agriculture annually print and distribute 



