week read the papers which I have found by experience contain matter that holds my attention, then he whose entire existence, and that of his family, depends upon agriculture, will choose by preference those newspapers and periodicals which devote at least a portion of their space to subjects that are nearest his every-day living?
The horticulturist does not subscribe for the grain trade paper any more than the publisher subscribes for "Electrical Engineering," and the average run of farmer will not subscribe for, and if he subscribes for it be will not read, a weekly newspaper dealing entirely with happenings in town. And as you know, if he does not read it, he is useless to the publisher from the advertising standpoint.
One of my selfish reasons for wanting to see more agricultural matter in the exchanges of Oregon, of course is to make available for clipping or as "tips" for stories of my own, more stuff of general interest agriculturally, but of clipped stuff we use very little, so my interest there can be called negligible. Another reason—and this is purely commercial—is illustrated by an interesting development in the experience of the Oregon State library. As many of you know, the demand for the individual loan of books by mail, and for the use of traveling libraries, has been enormous. It was thought that with the establishment throughout the state of county libraries, equipped to render in a small way much the same service as the central system, the demand for loans by mail and for traveling libraries would decrease. To the amazing contrary, it increased by leaps and bounds. County library service merely educated more people in the delights of reading and whetted the appetites of those already partially supplied; and that is what more agricultural stories in the small newspapers of Oregon would do. I have an idea that the comparatively small amount of agricultural reading matter which the country weeklies and small city dailies of the state could carry as "bait" for country residents would in the slightest degree injure our chances of obtaining Oregon Farmer subscribers in the same neighborhood. On the contrary, I am confident that it would increase the demand by agriculturally minded people for the more detailed treatment of these questions which our columns contain. This is well illustrated in Lewis county, the bailiwick of the Bee-Nugget. Here there are approximately 2600 farmers, and here the Washington Farmer, an allied publication of the Oregon Farmer, has nearly 2000 subscribers. I have no doubt that a very large proportion of Bee-Nugget subscribers would be found on our list, and vice versa; and we object not at all to having the local field developed for us, in that fashion.
It was suggested that I outline my idea of what constitutes a good agricultural story, and give some sources. This has been done to some extent in the foregoing, but I might add that any man with a sense of news values and possessing even slightly the farming "slant," will find abundant local material on every hand. The record of a back-yard flock, the profit from a family cow, the crop from a patch of corn or berries, the activities of agricultural high school students, the yearnings of city residents for the farm, all furnish possibilities without ever crossing the city line; and once he goes beyond that the man with a nose for country news will find stories staring him in the face at every turn. Real stories, too—throbbing with every element that goes to make the front-page story of city life exciting. Here is a Willamette valley Jersey, on whose production of a living calf within a specified time after completing her record depends not only her own chance of be coming a gold medal animal, but that of her sire. Four weeks before calving she breaks both hind legs and must be killed. But how, and still save the calf? The
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