Cooperative Extension is famous for having a bulletin for just about anything you can imagine. Need to know about the diseases on your roses, here's a bulletin. Need to know about mildew in your bathroom, here's a bulletin. Need to know how to calibrate your tobacco sprayer, here's a bulletin.

When you talk to an expert county Extension agent about your problem or to find more information about a certain topic, you will probably get detailed answers and recommendations. Most likely, you will also get something to carry home with you to review or to study, so you will better understand the answers to your questions.

Bulletins have proven to be an excellent tool to reinforce education. They are usually small, the information in them is usually condensed to cover just the main topics, and they are usually written so just about anyone can understand them. When your county agent gives you that bulletin, he or she is going a step further than just simply answering your questions. The agent is teaching you more about the topic, so you can better understand the answer, and so you will be better able to apply what you learned if or when you have similar questions in the future.

Virtually, all of the bulletins available from the Extension Service are free. Many of them were developed and published by Extension specialists. Others are made available by either the North Carolina or United States Department of Agriculture or other branches of government. Some are actually made available by commercial businesses, but our staff has a policy of not stocking or distributing these bulletins unless they are totally educational and do not promote a specific commercial product or service.

There is a small cost for a few of the bulletins we have available. These bulletins are much more detailed and are more like books than bulletins. Some of them are very specialized and so few of them are printed that the printing cost per bulletin does not allow free distribution. In all cases, the prices for these bulletins are very reasonable, and you always pay only the cost of printing.

In addition to the vast selection of bulletins we have available, I would like to share with you that we have just received a couple of special publications that may be of interest to you. The 2002 edition of the North Carolina Agricultural Chemicals Manual is available. This is a comprehensive book containing information about all pesticide products registered for use in North Carolina. In addition, it contains information about sprayer calibration, fertilizer use, animal damage control, safety, and much more. All farmers should have a copy of this manual, even though it may be a recent edition.

We also have the new Farmer's Tax Guides available. This booklet is provided by the Internal Revenue Service and is available at no cost. I encourage all farmers who prepare their own taxes to pick up a copy of this guide. Others may want to review the materials in this publication just to make sure their accountant is considering all possible methods to keep tax obligations to a minimum.

We still have copies of the publication Weeds of the Southern United States. This is a great weed identification guide and is a valuable tool for farmers who are using no-till. It is critical that weeds be identified properly, so the most effective herbicides can be selected.

With the many changes we have seen in electronic technology during the past few years, it is not surprising that the technology of providing bulletins is changing. Now, with the use of a computer and the Internet, you can access literally thousands of bulletins and print them right at your desk. This technology is great not only because it makes the bulletins so convenient, but when they are web based, they can be edited and changed whenever necessary without having to find funds to reprint the bulletin. Because of this, the information in the bulletins is always current.

Another new technology that is fast gaining popularity is bulletins, publications, and books that are on CDs. The new Agricultural Chemical Manual mentioned above can be purchased on CD. With this technology, you just stick the CD in your computer or laptop and quickly search for the specific information you need from the manual.

What will they think of next? All these bulletins are great, and they contain a lot of information, but it takes time to read them and to get the information you need to make the right decisions. Do you reckon the next technology will be a gadget that can read all this information for you and then print out only that portion you need?

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 1/25/02