The date May 15, 1962, marked the centennial of the passage of legislation establishing the Department of Agriculture. Through research, service, and education, the Department has contributed significantly to the development of an efficient and productive agricultural enterprise in the United States, and has contributed substantially to furthering the health and welfare of the American people. A nonrecurring appropriation was made in 1962 for planning and carrying out activities related to the centennial observance of the establishment of the Department of Agriculture, as follows: 1. Coordination with trade, industry, and commodity groups. A program for the participation by agricultural trade, industry, and commodity groups in the centennial observance was developed and coordinated with centennial activities and carried out directly by the Department, the land-grant institutions, and other governmental agencies. The trade, industry, and commodity groups financed the costs of the activities in which they participated. 2. Additional printing costs of "1962 Yearbook of Agriculture.”—The "1962 Yearbook of Agriculture" commemorated the centennial year of the establishment of the Department of Agriculture. In dealing with the Department's role in agriculture over the past century, the higher costs of the yearbook, above those provided under "Salaries and expenses, Office of Information" were paid from this item. 1 Represents obligations. Applied costs for 1962 were $46,066. The difference of $23,000 represents unpaid undelivered orders for printing at the end of 1962. This appropriation expired for obligation on December 31, 1962. The work has been completed and any balances arising from the liquidation of the obligations will lapse. STATUS OF PROGRAM Current activities.-The date May 15, 1962, marked the centennial of the passage of legislation establishing the Department of Agriculture. The nonrecurring 1962 appropriation, which remained available until December 31, 1962, was used to plan, develop, coordinate, and encourage participation by trade, industry, and commodity groups in centennial activities. SELECTED EXAMPLES OF RECENT PROGRESS Invitation.—An invitation to participate in the centennial, signed by the Secretary of Agriculture and accompanied by a centennial brochure, "The Centennial of Agriculture-How You Can Take Part," was mailed to 6,000 commercial and industrial leaders, civic groups, churches, and educational groups a few months before the centennial year officially began. Newspaper supplement.—A special centennial section of the Publisher's Auxiliary, a national trade newspaper circulated to more than 12,000 newspapers, was an excellent outlet for stores and dealer-sponsored advertisements about the Department of Agriculture and American agriculture. Weeklies, smalltown dailies, and urban and suburban newspapers ordered more than 550 sets of mats as carried in the section and made wide use of the material all over the country. Program book, “Agriculture 100".-More than 12,000 copies of a program book were mailed to various groups-about one-fourth as a result of individual requests. Included among the organizations, individuals, and groups receiving the publication were manufacturers, civic groups, advertising agencies, business firms, railroads, banks, and county centennial committees. The 54-page publication contained ideas and materials for centennial participation ranging from camera-ready ads to centennial USDA publications and motion pictures that could be ordered separately, and suggestions for making up exhibits. A basic aim of the book was to reach nonfarm groups and urban people with the story of American farming. Picture stories.-Four were issued: Way Back When, Kids and Country Life, Cracker Barrel Days, and Aircraft in Agriculture. Requests for Way Back When were greater than for any other picture story ever issued by the Photography Division. The demand for photos from it was also extremely high. Requests for the other three publications were unusually strong as well. (Within a few days after the initial mailing, a single order was received for 5,000 copies of Aircraft in Agriculture.) Centennial film festival of agriculture.-A final centennial activity included the holding of America's first film festival devoted entirely to movies produced about agriculture. Of more than 100 entries, 20 films were selected to receive awards, and three outstanding documentations were chosen to receive special recognition for their work creating better understanding of agriculture and conservation through the media of motion pictures and television. One day of the 3-day festival was called Americas Day, when films from Latin America and Canada were viewed and honored. Approximately 300 people attended the festival in November. Special items.—Throughout the centennial year, several small items were dereloped for centennial observance. Included were: a large plastic, three-dimensional plaque of the centennial symbol for use at dinners and meetings throughout the country (copies also were made available from the manufacturer for sale to groups interested in obtaining quantities); several banners and flags for loan to groups having special observances; a tabletop exhibit or window display saluting the American farmer, one of which was sent to each State extension service arrangements also were made with the manufacturer for additional sales to other agencies and private groups); a set of presentation cards describing the Centennial activities and also used in making slide presentations about the Department's centennial year. Industry and media support of the observance was high, and in most cases private organizations and associations used centennial material heavily in developing programs or media productions about food, farm efficiency, and America's contributions to world agriculture. GENERAL STATEMENT Mr. LEWIS. We are going forward to meet our obligation to give full information support to the activities that the Congress has given the Department authority for over the years, and this, of course, includes some of the more recent functions that have been added to our activities. INCREASE IN INFORMATION ACTIVITIES As you know, the Office of Information reflects the total work of the Department, and in that context, because of the new authorities that have come along this last year, we have taken on an added workload concerning such new activities as those under the Food and Agricul ture Act of 1962-for example, in the land use adjustment field, stepped up conservation activities, and functions that come under the authority providing for helping develop profitmaking recreational opportunities in farm areas. Included, of course, are the new commodity programs. We are also taking steps in our information effort to disseminate facts more broadly about the rural areas development program, and are carrying out a coordinating function, informationwise, on the responsibilities that have come to the Department under the Area Redevelopment Act. And, of course, there has been some increase in credit activities, such as the senior citizens' housing credit activities under FHA authority. As we have pointed out previously to this committee, we continue to get along pretty well in getting our information to the agricultural media, to agricultural organizations, and to people directly affected by our activities and functions. We think we have come to a point in the appraisal of our information activities where we have a somewhat greater dimension than has been the case in past years. We are carrying on our basic service task in line with the policy and practice you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, and we will continue to do so, to get essential information out on our research activities, the action programs that affect the farmers directly, the regulatory functions, and so on. This area is not one that we would consider neglecting, but farmers, populationwise, represent only about 8 percent of the population now, and not many people outside agriculture in general understand how much comes out of Department's activities that does affect them. These are the people in urban areas. So we are trying to broaden our efforts. We feel that in the conservation field if people in cities understand what happens, for example, to their water supply because of conservation, they can understand us a little better. Likewise, in our research activities, if people in the cities realize that the stretch cottons, for example, have come about out of agricultural research, we have a common denominator for understanding what the Department does a little more fully. PUBLICATIONS ACTIVITY Getting to our program work, we are continuing, of course, in our basic publications work in cooperation with the agencies. The new activities that have come about have added to our publications work. For example, in 1961 we put out 610 new titles. These are new bulletins and major revisions. In 1962 it went up to 666. Coming to the yearbooks, as you know, the centennial book came out to coincide with the opening of the centennial observance last May 15. The title was "After 100 Years," and the book covered the whole realm of development in agriculture in that period. We have had pretty good reaction to it, and it is getting good results. The 1963 book is concerned with rural-urban relationships. This will go into many subjects from the standpoint of what is happening in this country because of urbanization and industrialization in many of our areas, and we think it will be particularly valuable now that there is so much attention being given to the subject of rural areas development throughout the country. It is a book that will be of value not only to the people directly affected by farm-city relationships, but to many others who carry out activities that are somewhat indirect to this area. The 1964 book is on the drawing board, so to speak. It will be concerned with America's stake in world agriculture. This is not too far developed now. It will be coming along. It will treat matters of foreign trade, farm policies and programs as ours affect other countries, and as other countries' policies and programs affect our agriculture, and other similar subjects. We have a new publication which is about to come out from the Government Printing Office in a day of two. It is titled "A Century of Service." This is more a functional history than an organizational history. It starts with the beginning of the Department and traces the Department's services and activities through the years. Mr. WHITTEN. Let me interrupt there and ask: In view of the book on the centennial, what is the justification for having this new book which, from the title, appears to be a duplication? Mr. LEWIS. This is more of a reference work than the other book. The centennial yearbook was directed more to the public in terms of explaining in broad treatment what has happened over the 100 years. The history will be a book that will be valuable to people who write on agriculture, researchers and others. Mr. WHITTEN. I do not recall that book being called to the attention of this committee. What did it cost and when and where were the funds provided for it? Mr. LEWIS. This book will cost approximately $12,000. There will be 6,000 copies available and of course all Members of Congress will get a copy. Mr. WHITTEN. Is this because the other one was insufficient to serve the general purpose? Mr. LEWIS. Yes. You see, the centennial yearbook goes into a specific subject on a pretty broad area, interpreting to the public what this has meant in agricultural development over the years. We have had no really adequate history in the Department of the various functions of agriculture, the various types of programs that have come along. Mr. WHITTEN. Where were the funds for this obtained? Was it a transfer or direct appropriation? Mr. McCORMICK. From regular funds the agencies put together for centennial activities and materials. They are funds available in 1962 and have no relationship to the funds for the yearbook. Mr. WHITTEN. Was our attention called to that? Mr. GRANT. I believe at the time we discussed it 2 years ago with this committee we explained plans for financing centennial activities and included in those were a number of activities and this item, as I recall, was included in the plans. Just how specific we were, I would have to check. Mr. WHITTEN. I wish you would check into that. I know in the yearbook we were very careful to see that it would not go beyond what we were trying to do, be a partisan effort, and become a "white elephant," or source of controversy and probably be the subject of a lot of criticism in the American press. So I wish you would check and see what is involved and we in turn will check and see how it stacks up in our opinion. in our opinion. We must see that the Information Service maintains a reputation for objectivity. You might proceed. Mr. LEWIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. RADIO TAPE SERVICES In the 1963 budget there was an item of $7,000 for the purchase of high-speed radio tape duplicating equipment. We were able to get this equipment installed around the first of the year. The basis of our request for this fund was to have faster duplicating equipment available because we have had to go more from network radio to single stations for the major part of our outlets in agricultural radio news and information. This is a development that has been going on for several years. We were hard put to serve all the stations that wanted our tape-recorded services. We have had one service called Agri-tape. This is a 132-minute tape that is oriented to news, and we have to get it out weekly on deadline to make it timely. It has 3 to 4 minutes of news highlights and three to five short features covering various subject areas of Department work. We had to impose a ceiling of 200 tapes. With our new equipment since the first of the year we have been able to increase our output in this area by 35 percent in terms of the number of tapes that go out of the Department. We estimate that with most of these single stations we get additional listeners of from 5,000 to 10,000 per station. We are doing this with the same manpower and very little extra cost above the equipment. since we do this on a tape-returnable basis. This is also helping us step up our other tape services. We have another weekly service that goes into subjects more in depth, and we have been able to increase our service from 145 to 170 stations, again with the same manpower. The stations that get this service, called Agriculture USA, include many of the larger ones. Some serve a regional clientele rather than local. Also, we will be able to get out more regional or localized tapes that cover subject matter of specific nature that is of great interest in a restricted area, such as the campaign against screw worms, brucellosis, and so on. Last year, during the severe Atlantic storm in March, we were able to get local tapes immediately to 35 stations in the area between the Carolinas and the Northeast coast, to explain what food assistance was available on an area basis. With the new equipment we can increase our activities in this area. As I pointed out earlier, Mr. Chairman, we have been taking steps to increase our outlets to people in our urban areas. We are trying |