22 



PRESIDENT S ADDKESS. 



carried, that the Minister of Agriculture should be asked to 

 send me to enquire into entomological matters in the United 

 States. The matter was not dealt with until the meeting 

 of the State Premiers in Brisbane, in June, 1907. It was 

 decided that, with the permission of the New South Wales 

 Government, I should investigate various entomological prob- 

 lems in America and Europe ; India and Ceylon were after- 

 wards added, at the request of Queensland. This was an 

 important recognition of the importance of Economic Ento- 

 mology by the Australian public. The report of my investi- 

 gations was published as a bulletin, in 1909. 



A Bill to establish an Australian Bureau of Agriculture 

 was introduced into the House of Representatives in 1909, 

 and read for the first time. Coming at the end of the session, 

 it was shelved ; and a change of Ministers, at the following 

 elections, caused the Bill to be dropped. The scope and 

 functions of the Bill would have led to the creation of a 

 Department of Agriculture on very similar lines to that of 

 the Federal Department of the United States. They were aa 

 follows: "(1) The acquisition and diffusion, among the people 

 of the Commonwealth, of information connected with Agri- 

 culture and Forestry in all its branches. (2) The carrying oul 

 of experiments and investigations on pests or diseases affecting 

 plants or live stock, and the means for preventing their spread 

 or effecting their eradication. (4) The publication of reports 

 and bulletins dealing with any matter of importance in regard 

 to production in Australia. The publication of the reports 

 of the experiments of experiment farms. Arrangements may 

 be made with the Government of any State in respect to the 

 following matters : Carrying out of experiments or investiga 

 tion ; supply and distribution of information ; exchange and 

 distribution of seeds and plants ; any matter conducing to the 

 development in Australia of the agricultural, pastoral, dairy- 

 ing, horticultural, and viticultural industries and forestry " 



The Department of Agriculture in Washington, U.S.A.. 

 consists of a number of distinct divisions or branches, now 



