] :. U.5C3 Mi Sit mi Cornell University Library S 484.U5C3 Reports of committees [on printing and d 3 1924 000 923 734 g»tatc College of Agriculture m Cornell ^Hntbetstitp 3tl)ata, ^. p. Xifirarp y^ (2. arcs Reports of Committees MADE AT THE MEETING OP ^ The C. D. A. February ii, 1893. COMMITTEE No. i. — Publications now being Issued by the Department. The Committee, consisting of Messrs. Hallenbeck and Harrington, made a verbal report. COMMITTEE No. 2.— Distribution of Reports. . The Committee recommends that : — 1. Each Division should maintain a card index list of the regular recipients of its reports. The date upon which franks for this permanent list were sent to the Mailing Division should be kept. 2. The permanent list for the receipt of all reports should be abolished or re- duced to very small limits. If kept at all, the names upon it should not appear upon any Division list. 3. Documents should be addressed, when the list is large, either by Dick's mailer system, or by Youth's Companion system, the latter preferred. 4. Record of documents distributed should be kept in the Mailing Division by a card ind,ex for each document. The distribution to the perrhanent list of a Division should be noted on one card, and a card used for each copy distributed to miscel- laneous applicants. 5. Division officers should decide who should be placed on their permanent list, and all miscellaneous applications for their publication should be submitted to them. If in doubt, a circular or letter should be sent the applicant asking him to state exactly what was wanted, and if neces'iary, what use was to be Made of the matter. Henry Casson. A. T. LojJGLEY. B. W. Snow. COMMITTEE NO. 3. — Periodical Publications. The committee to whom was assigned the consideration of questions re- lating to the issuing of periodical publications by the Department respectfully submits the following report : 1. The character of some of the work of the Department is such as to require periodical publications. 2. The Department should establish a periodical publication to include a tech- nical record of the scientific work of its several branches. This publication should be distinct from any other issued by the Department, and should be pre- pared with illustrations and in a manner suited to its character as a permanent record of scientific wort. The " quarto " form is recommended for this publi- cation. 3. The publication of periodical bulletins by individual bureaus, offices, or divisions of the Department should be determined by the needs of the work with which each branch of the Department is charged. 4. Questions relating to the issuing of periodical publications are so intimately involved with those relating to" the character of the other publications of the Department and to the methods of their distribution, that the subcommittee did not think it within its province to make a further report. Geo. Wm. Hill. C. V. BiLET. D. E. Salmon. B. E. Fernow. A. C. True. COMMITTEE NO. 4.— General Character of Publications. The publications of the Department may be divided into three olaases accord- ing to the readers they are intended to reach : 1. The Purely Popular. — In the form of Farmers' Bulletins containing instruc- tions " how to do -" expressed in the simplest language. These short, purely practical Circulars of Information are intended to reach formers who desire infor- mation readily applicable to their work, and will require large editions. 2. The Purely Scientific and Technical Publicaiiona. — Should contain the record: of scientific investigations with all the necessary technical detail. They are intended to reach scientific workers in the field, educational institutions and libraries. Small editions only are needed. Three subclasses may be recognized under this head : a. Records of periodical phenomena, which should appear in periodical publi- cations. 6. Records of current scientific work or discovery which may appear either in the public press journals or in a periodical publication similar to the Experiment Station Record. c. Records of completed or partially completed research presenting subjects of specific interest in full. These may be in the form of Bulletins or Monographs published at irregular intervals. 3. Applied Seimtific or Popular Scientific Publications. — These should constitute the bulk of publications and should consist of Bulletins similar in character to most of the present publications. They must be of the widest range and should be written in a clear, concise style divested of unnecessary technical detail. They should present not only the conclusions applicable to practice but also the methods by which the conclusions have been reached. It is suggested that the conclusions and the methods or arguments be indicated by difference in type and that a full subject index and full summary of conclusions be appended. 4. Annual Report. — The annual report, instead of containing the results of a large part of the investigations carried on in the Department, should be merely an executive document showing clearly and concisely the object, scope and progress of the work, the kind of investigations in progress and any specially important conclusions reached during the year. It should contain a full biblio- graphy of the special publications in which the work is more fully discussed. 5. Improper Publications. — Your committee would lay down as governing prin- ciples that no publications should be issued from the Department which do not bear a close relation to, or are not calculated to advance agriculture, and that auxiliary matter which has not such a distinct bearing or which is naturally published by private enterprise, as agricultural text-books and handbooks, should find an outlet elsewhere. B. E. Fernow. T. RnssBLL. T. S. Palmer. COMMITTEE No. 5. — Distribution of the Printing Appropriation. Committee No. 5 suggests : — That the arbitrary partition of the appropriation among Bureaus and Divisions is impracticable, because: — 1. While the work of each is unequal in scope and extent, the results of each requiring publicity are also annually unequal, and such requirements cannot well be determined for a year in advance. 2. Could the partition be equitably made, in twenty parts, the unexpended balances, however small, would fritter away an inconvenient slice of the whole, or else hasty or unnecessary use might prove equally wasteful. 3. A portion of the printing is ordered and paid for by Congress, and not charge- able to the Department fund, thus interfering with the equality of a fixed distri- bution. 4. The established and necessary revision of these results, by the Secretary and his editor, as to utility and necessity and extent and cost of publication, militates against an unalterable rule of distribution. As such arbitrary partition is not practicable, it is likewise not necessary, because : — 1. A.11 necessary printing can be had without it. As it grows, all imperative re- quirements should be met by increase of appropriation. 2. The essential utility of such partition can be secured by an estimate for each branch of the Department, of its probable requirement, filed with the editor at the beginning of the fiscal year, with perhaps a revised or supplementary estimate at the end of six months. This would be a basis for an equitable division, or an early hint of a needed additional appropriation. 3. All difficulty in obtaining required printing facilities would probably be ob- viated by a rigorous exclusion of extraneous and irrelevant material ; by a terse and perspicuous diction, a compact and logical marshalling of facts, the avoidance of loose generalizations, leading directly to vital, practical conclusions. This ^ would at the same time obviate one of the most glaring defects which vitiates so much of the official literature of all Departments of the Government service. In accordance with these suggestions, your committee would respectfully submit the following resolution : Resolved, That a fixed partition of the printing fund, among the Bureaus and Divisions of the Department, is impracticable, but estimates of probable require- ments should be submitted at the beginning of each fiscal year, and all valuable results of official investigations, compactly and perspicuously presented, should be printed, and adequate appropriations for the purpose should be secured. J. E. Dodge. F. V. COVILLE. COMMITTEE NO. 6.— Propriety and Method of Publishing Results Unofficially. The committee appointed to consider the foregoing question would respectfully report that : — 1. It is desirable that abstracts be published with the consent of the Secretary and of the Chief of the Bureau or Division in case of important work which is not likely to be published soon and for which priority may be lost by delay in publication. Such abstracts or summaries the committee believe to be valuable in arousing an interest in the full report by giving in the briefest form a com- plete survey of the discoveries or advances made in the work itself The custom of making preliminary publications of important results in regular unofficial journals is practiced the world over and therefore in recommending it we are but following in the footsteps of older and more experienced nations. 2. No work carried on as official should be published without the advice and consent of the Secretary or the Chief of the Division or Bureau in which the work is carried on, or without giving due credit to the Department. There is, however, no very sharp line to be drawn between what may be called official work and those accessory ideas or results which are directly deducible from such work and which do not directly bear upon the object or objects for which the work was undertaken. These secondary results of investigations are often of great scien- tific value in their bearing on related sciences or branches of research in adding to our knowledge. Their suppression or neglect would be a loss to science. In cases of this kind consultation with superiors is always the better plan. 3. While there is no objection to the publication of reports or documents in ad- vance of official publication, provided the consent of the Secretary of Agriculture and the respective chief has been obtained, it is on the whole not desirable, as it detracts from the value of the official report. Long delay of the official publica- tion may, however, make it at times desirable to give to the world as soon as possible the results of investigations demanded by the progress of science. 4. No personal letters or correspondence should be carried on concerning work under way excepting with the consent of the superiors in general charge. It cannot be expected, however, that scientists at work on any problem should refrain entirely from correspondence, since this is often necessary in order to obtain infor- mation and suggestions. ' 5 5. It is always desirable that priority in the development of new and original ideas should be carefully guairded, both for the reputation of the Department, as well as for the protection of the person or persons to whom such development i s due. Delay in publication is largely instrumental in preventing just recognition of such services even though precedence can be proved by dates, since the date of publication is that generally accepted by scientists. If the points raised under (1) can be properly adjusted the point bearing on priority will have been virtually settled. Mark W. Harrington. Theobald Smith. COMMITTEE NO. 7.— Free Distribution of Documents vs. Sale. The committee on the foregoing subject beg leave to make the following report: 1. We cannot at present recommend the exclusive sale of Department publi- cations. 2. We cannot at present recommend the sale of the publications in the United States. 3. We recommend, however, that if it can be done legally from 100 to 150 copies of every publication not of the most ephemeral nature be placed on sale in Europe. 4. We recommend that the copies be divided among three prominent book- sellers, one each in London, Paris and Berlin. 5. In such event the Department should fix the price, giving the bookseller a commission sufficient to induce him to make an effort to bring the works to the notice of those interested. W. T. Swingle. Thos. Taylor. Wm. Saunders. COMMITTEE NO. 8.— Size of Editions. The undersigned suggest the following : 1. Theoietically the size of an edition should depend entirely on the size of the class which it is designed to reach ; practically it must depend upon this factor in connection with the size of the fund available for publication. 2. If there were no limitations on the score of expense, the question of size of edition would be reduced simply to a question of judgment as to the probable immediate demand for the document, and in most cases the light of previous experience would be sufficient to prevent any serious error. 3. An edition should not much exceed this probable demand under ordinary circumstances, and particularly where no colored illustrations are involved ; for a second edition can be issued at a very slight additional cost, within any reason- able time, if the demand should much exceed the expectation. 4. In the case of documents with colored illustrations, either the original edition should be made large enough to meet all reasonable demands, or an extra edition of the plates alone should be printed at the outset, in order to avoid the great expense attending their reproduction after the original stones have been de- stroyed. 6 5. By the " demand " for a document should be understood the legitimate demand for it as a usuful publication. There is a fictitious demand for illustrated bulle- tins, which are often regarded as picture books and distributed as such ; this de- mand theoretically should not be met by any increase in size of edition ; prac- tically it may be necessary to make some such increase. 6. Other things being equal, small and inexpensive bulletins may be issued in larger editions than more expensive ones. Walter B. Barrows. W. A. Taylor. COMMITTEE No. g. — Mechanical and Editorial make up of Publications and Illustrations. The Committee on the mechanical and editorial make up of publications and illustrations respectfully submit the following suggestions : — 1. That the periodical publications should be considered a distinct series, and as such should be numbered and paged separately. 2. That all other bulletins of the Department should be issued in one series and should be numbered consecutively. In addition to the Department number a Divisional number should be given in brackets. 3. That the pagination for each year should be consecutive, and should be of two kinds, (a) Department pagination, and (6) Divisional pagination, the former at the top of the page and the latter at the bottom. 4. That at the close of each year there should be issued a complete bibliographical index by authors and by subjects to all the publications of the Department. 5. That the dimensions of all bulletins, unless intended for some very special object, should be of two kinds, (a) octavo, and {b) quarto. 6. That only in exceptional cases should the quarto size be adopted as, in our opinion, all things considered, the octavo is the neatest, most economical and con- venient. 7. That the paper for text and illustrations should be as uniform in color, quality and weight as possible. 8. That in the make up of illustrations all expense requiring accuracy should be entailed, but no expense for show should be allowed. 9. That the facilities for wood engraving should be increased. 10. That the question as to whether the Department should make its own photo-engravings instead of farming them out all over the country at a waste of time, patience and accuracy is worthy of careful consideration. B. T. Galloway, R. J. HiNTON. Geo. Marx. W. L. WILSON, PR, 430 11TH ST. Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000923734