Historic, archived document Do not assume content reflects current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices. I l^k^z I SHARE THIS COPY Patent pointers SECURING PATENTS for Department inventions and discoveries is a topic that must be appreciated fully, for unless a carefully planned program of this na- 3 ture is understood and carried out, many : ;:::::::z::r:zjm?^ of the fruits of patient and brilliant research by our fellow wcrkers may be forfeited. As the Department has one 4 V JA ..l/Hiv- • of the largest research organizations in the world, the obtaining of patents is an important supplement to its scien- tific activities. Where community canneries are not You ask "Why should the Department Saving our bounty present, many schools process in their bother to get patents? Is it not suffi- kitchens for the lunch program. Among FOOD PRESERVATION is sponsored by cient simply to disclose its inventions in these are 958 in Ohio, 940 in Michigan, the Food Distribution Branch of the other forms of publications reaching the 833 in Tennessee, 740 in Minnesota, 670 Production and Marketing Administra- public?" The answer is that the object in Wisconsin, and 575 in Iowa. tion. It is geared to prevent waste by of Department research is to benefit the Additional aid in utilizing Govern- helping to find outlets for fruit and vege- public. An invention made as a result ment-donated frozen turkeys, cheese, tables raised locally without waste, and of Department research belongs to the and butter and for preserving fruits and also in cases where the Department finds public, who paid for it through taxation. vegetables has come from the local advisable to handle surplus perish- Hence the public should not be obliged it frozen food locker plants. In promoting ables removed from the market under to pay twice for the same invention. the best use of products supplied for the price-support programs. This work is Double payment like this would be pos- National School Lunch program and carried out under authority of section sible when a Department invention is other direct distribution projects, these 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act not patented by the Department itself, 12,000 locker plants have been invalu- revised, which relates to the expansion and thus have the field left open for able. of domestic food markets—especially someone else to take precedence and get All this activity stems from World War when the harvest is bounteous and the a patent on the same invention. Publi- II food preservation campaigns. Can- demand slack. cation of an invention is not a barrier ning centers were set up under the Food Technical help is given in the develop- to the granting of a patent to another, Production War Training program of ment and improvement of nonprofit if the other person's application is filed the Office of Education, with the Depart- community canning centers run by with the U. S. Patent Office within 1 year ment providing much technical guid- communities, schools, and public and of its publication date, and if the appli- ance and financial aid. Today PMA private institutions. Demonstrations, cant can show that he made the inven- personnel continue to provide assistance technological know-how, bulletins and tion prior to the date of the aforesaid to school and community canning plants canning plant layout designs, and publication, even though after the date through the Vocational Education Offi- timely information in all phases of of invention by the author. ces of the State Departments of Educa- sound food-preservation practices are A new revised edition cf the tion. USDA employed in this continuing effort. In Patent Manual is listed as Miscellaneous most cases section 32 food-preservation BAI retirements Publication No. 551. It was drafted of the is carried out jointly work Branch The Personnel Division, Bureau of Animal by W. L. Cheesman, Northern through State agencies concerned with Industry, lists age-required retirements of Regional Research Laboratory, Peoria, noteworthy employees which occur in Janu- operation of such processing plants. 111., T. ary and February. They are Birtwhistle and A. Seegrist, Office of the Arrang^n^nts for using canneries for MacCormack, virus-serum inspection, Kansas Solicitor. It was sponsored by the USDA processing Government-donated prod- City, Kans., Herbert Martin, general investi- gator, New York, N. Y., John H. Muller, live- Committee on Patent Policy consisting ucts are made with the State Distribut- stock inspection, Baltimore, Md., William of 10 authorities from the Agricultural ing Agency and the agency responsible J. J. Pooley, meat inspection, South St. Joseph, Mo., and two meat inspectors, Research Administration, the Produc- for operation of the individual plants. Charles E. Richardson, Kansas City, Kans., tion and Marketing Administration, the Current data show that there are and Edward R. Saunders, St. Louis, Mo. Soil Conservation Service, and the Office about 322 institutional canneries with a Win award jointly of the Solicitor. Write for copies to the total daily capacity of 3,500,000 pounds The Joseph Harvey Gourley award in po- Office of the Solicitor, care of Fred of products in 44 States reporting. mology was made lately to Leon Havis and Mrs. Brooke Meanley (formerly Anna L. Herzer. Many of them have been used to handle Gilkerson), Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, section 32 commodities for eligible and Agricultural Engineering. They were schools and institutions. Besides these honored for research covering fertilizing and pruning peach trees. Nelson transferred plants, approximately 1,600 steam-op- Lewis B. Nelson, soil specialist with the erated community canneries were in Geology award Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agri- operation in 34 States in 1950. More Sterling B. Hendricks, Plant Industry Sta- cultural Engineering, has transferred from tion, Beltsville, Md., received the Arthur L. Port Collins, Colo., to Beltsville, Md., where canneries are use than 500 equipped to Day gold medal recently from the Geological he will supervise research in the relation of glass jars as well as tin containers. Society of America. It was accorded to him different fertilizers to various soil types. A outstanding in the application of native of Idaho, Mr. Nelson was associate More than 75 percent of these plants are for work chemistry and physics to geological prob- professor of soils at Iowa State College be- in the Southeast. lems. fore joining USDA in 1949. 236466°—53 — Death of Dr. Merrill Bulletin builders Extension pioneer Melvin C. Merrill, Ph. D., who retired from the Office of Information in the Department "PARTNERSHIP PLANNING for Popu- December 31, 1949, after a quarter of a MEMORIES OF early day county agri- lar Publications" was the theme of a 3- century as chief of the Division of Publica- cultural agents are timely now because tions, died December 22 at his Washington, day USDA Publications Workshop held D. O, home, after a brief illness. He is of the golden jubilee of farm demon- in Washington late in November and survived by his wife, one daughter, four stration work this year. One such re- grandchildren, and four sisters. Dr. Merrill well over fellow attended by a hundred Depart- was born in April 1884 in Richmond, Utah, a minder comes from a employee ment staff members particularly con- son of a Mormon pioneer and apostle, Mar- who has vivid recollections of the in- riner Merrill, and Maria Kingsbury cerned with publications, including ad- Wood fluence that a pioneer county agent had Merrill. He graduated from Utah State Agri- ministrators, editorial and illustrations cultural College and later earned degrees in in his home community. May we hear people, and some subject-matter work- advanced work at Cornell, University of from others? Chicago, Harvard University, and Washing- ers, and a few State editorial authorities. ton University, St. Louis. After teaching It was during the early part of the First Resulting from the workshop, Director high school, he spent some time directing World War that Dad came home from his the Baguio Experiment Station at Manila, weekly trip to town with the news that we of Information R. L. Webster told the subsequently teaching at Idaho Technical had a county agent, who was telling folks group at the closing session, will be: (1) Institute and serving as head of the Utah that there was a need for most everything State College horticultural department, also that could be produced on our farms. Additional workshops or conferences for We as dean of applied sciences at Brigham Young had been reading about this war need but smaller groups on various phases of pub- University, and in research work at Missouri it took Mr. Holland, our first county agent, Botanical Gardens. During his career in lications work; (2) studies of the effec- to give realism to it. Later on the boys be- USDA, he had charge of the Journal of Agri- ing called up for the draft, and still later, tiveness of publications on the farm and cultural Research, served on the directorate the news of the deaths of John Tully and in the home; (3) increased impetus in of the Graduate School, and helped organize Walter Sewell—close neighbors of ours and was an officer of the OPEDA, or profes- gave impetus to our county agent's plea. the Department's important program of sional employees' unit. He was a member of We were soon trying out new things. We revising out-of-date publications; (4) many leading scientific and professional so- tried out a new variety of corn—the State cieties and fraternities. Just a week prior to College said it would do better than the corn closer cooperation between the Depart- his demise, Dr.