Forget Those Frothy Bios & Sports Novels; This Is Quality Reading From Our Archives

“If Winter Comes, Can Spring Be Far Behind?” proposed 19^th century English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, as he no doubt was planning a spring break trip to Fort Lauderdale to shake away the winter doldrums. Well, we don’t want to rush the spring season--who are we kidding?! You’re durn tootin’ we do! For many USDA employees, a spring break trip will include lounging on a beach towel--engrossed in a good book.

But if you want something with a little more intellectual heft in your spring break reading, latch on to a 'vintage’ edition of a USDA Yearbook of Agriculture.

As a cost-saving measure to reduce inventory and cut storage expenses, employees with the Office of Communications and the Office of Operations have been working together to make more of the Department’s inventory of USDA Yearbooks of Agriculture available to employees and others who could make good use of them.

OC public affairs specialist Deborah Takiff Smith served as editor of the Department’s annual Yearbook of Agriculture from 1988 until the last edition, which was published in 1992.

“The Yearbook of Agriculture,” she noted, “began as an annual publication in 1895--although the Department had published similar volumes, not yet called the 'yearbook,’ from USDA’s inception in 1862.”

“I think I’ll take a quick look at this particular edition before we mail it out,” says John Sutton (right), chief of OO’s Central Supply Stores in Landover, Md., as he, OO sales representative James Hogan (left), and OO supply technician Mary Clinton prepare 'vintage’ copies of past USDA Yearbooks of Agriculture for mailing to employees and others who are interested. --Photo by Ron Cooper

“Themes would vary every year, and the purpose of each edition was to pass on USDA research and other information to farmers and the general public.”

Each yearbook was distributed for free by Members of Congress, who would have a limited supply available for constituents. Copies could also be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents with the Government Printing Office, and they would be sold at government bookstores in many cities.

Surplus copies have been stored in OO’s Landover (Md.) Service Center. Over the years OO collected about 21,000 copies of past yearbooks, including copies from nearly every year from the 1950- 51 edition--titled “Crops in Peace and War”--forward.

Then last June Smith teamed up with John Sutton, chief of Central Supply Stores for OO in Landover, to reduce that surplus. “I contacted the public affairs offices of USDA’s program agencies and other outlets that might get the yearbooks to interested readers around the country,” said Smith. “We also kept some archival copies of each edition, to fill congressional requests.”

As a result, the inventory of USDA Yearbooks of Agriculture was reduced to a total of 14,000 copies of ten previous editions. Books currently in stock include such editions as “The Face of Rural America” (1976), “Cutting Energy Costs” (1980), “Will There Be Enough Food?” (1981), “Using Our Natural Resources” (1983), “Animal Health” (1984), “U.S. Agriculture in a Global Economy” (1985), “Research for Tomorrow” (1986), “Our American Land” (1987), “Farm Management” (1989), and “Agriculture and the Environment” (1991).

Agencies may still order copies for employees or other readers, and individual employees can now acquire 'vintage’ copies on their own. Sutton said he is using USDA’s established requisitioning system for this activity. “Just access our web site at http://www.lsc.usda.gov and click on the 'Forms’ block, or call my office at 301-436-8450 voice or 1-800-877-8339 TTY,” he said.

“All an employee has to pay for is a few dollars in postage costs, using their own agency’s in-house procurement procedures,” he added. “Then we’re happy to send out USDA yearbooks to them--until our supply of copies is exhausted.”

“I’m personally interested,” Sutton quipped, “in spending more time browsing through 'Will There Be Enough Food?’”