REA's special Silver Anniversary publication, Rural Lines USA, rolls off the press this month.

This 64-page, illustrated story of REA's first 25 years is told in terms of people the people who guided the agency, who created the rural electric systems, who built the lines and collected the easements, and who eventually found more than 400 uses for electricity on the farm.

The booklet was written to help rural electric systems to tell the story of rural electrification to their members, to give students a picture of the valuable systems which they will inherit, and to let the general public know the facts about REA and its borrowers. It also will provide foreign countries with information to aid them in extending electric service to their own rural residents.

When the booklet is published sometime in January, a free copy will be sent to the home of each officer and director of every REA electric borrower, and several copies will be mailed to every headquarters. Presidents and managers of REA-financed telephone systems also will receive free copies.

Highlights of Rural Lines USA will include

• More than 100 photographs, drawings, and charts depicting the progress of rural electrification, from the hand pump and washboard to the push-button farm and the all-electric home.

• Pre- REA history, including CREA and the Red Wing experiment and Pennsylvania's Giant Power Survey.

The story of REA's first uncer

New members should be told the story of how the first rural lines were built.

tain months, when Administrator Morris Cooke and others sought ways to make the rural electrification program work.

• The drive to organize rural electric cooperatives, and to the effort to collect 1 million easements by '41.

• Tales of early line construction, when mules hauled poles and even a flood failed to deter an enterprising contractor.

• The story of one of the most unforgettable evenings in the lives of millions of farm families-the night the lights came on.

Reminiscences of the first weeks of electricity on the farm, when a few families weren't sure whether electric power was friend or foe.

The growth of the cooperative spirit, which enabled rural people to surmount the most discouraging obstacles.

The war years, when electricity proved its worth on the farm by helping to produce more food and fiber with less human labor.

• How electric energy is being harnessed to perform the most arduous chores connected with dairying, poultry, and livestock production.

• The story of the development of rural businesses and industry, which are helping to increase income in rural areas.

• A look at the future of rural electrification-and of the organizations which distribute the power.

• An appendix listing the name and date of first loan of every REA electric borrower, plus a chronology of important events in the history of rural electrification.

After receiving their free copies, the directors of REA-financed sys

laska is big and different. Visitors

Alaska

and residents alike sense the rapid change and growth that marks everything about the 49th state. Rural electrification is no exception. Look at Alaska and you see kwh consumption figures that are unusual in rate of increase. Look again at Alaska and you see applications of electricity that are unusual in their variety. Take another look at Alaska and you see power needs that are unusual in their accelerated expansion.

Farm consumers on the lines of REA borowers in Alaska averaged 599 kwh per month in 1958. This consumption ranks fifth highest

among the 50 states, and is exceeded only by Nevada, Washington, New Jersey, and Oregon. Ten years ago, Alaska was way down the list in kwh consumption with an average of only 119 kwh per farm consumer per month. Only 3 other states have shown a faster rate of growth in kwh usage in this period.

The unusual increase in kwh consumption is readily understood when one looks at how Alaskans use their electric power to increase production and make life more comfortable in the rural areas. When the Alaskan farmer gets electricity, he believes in putting it to work.

A large percentage of Alaska's

farms have high-grade dairy herds. Feeding and milking is done under conditions as modern as any "stateside." There is a concentration of dairying in the Matanuska Valley, where power is supplied by the Matanuska Electric Association, of Palmer. Here, too, electric power is used for irrigation pumping. Surprisingly, a main reason for irrigating the land is to prevent the soil from being blown away by high winds that sweep across the farms. Electric hay drying is being introduced and offers. a good potential for future power use in some areas.

Electric lighting continues to bulk large in rural use of power because of the northern State's long winter nights. The isolating and confining effects of the unusual winter conditions also encourage installation of good quality radios and high fidelity record players. In spite of a relatively high level of retail rates, many homes are going all-electric.

What can be done toward future uses of electricity in the home is dramatically demonstrated in the exceptionally high kwh consumption figures at the Metlakatla Indian Com

munity on Annette Island. The Community provides comparatively high wages and low electric rates. A high proportion of the Indian families there have all-electric houses which include electric heating.

Almost unexpected in this far northern State is the number of summer cottages being built around the many lakes. A good share of these developments turn to REA-financed systems to get their electricity.

At Kotzebue, along the coast of the Bering Sea above the Arctic Circle, selling deep freeze units to the Eskimos is no longer an oddity. They use freezers and power from Kotzebue Electric Association to keep fish the year around.

REA borrowers furnish power for a wide variety of non-farm and nonhome consumers. Among the commercial users are the salmon canneries, a beef processing plant, and packing plants for king crab, found only in Alaskan waters. Coal and gold mines use co-op power, and a number of private airfields depend on the rural systems for electricity to operate these vital communications links.