NOTES. 699 



Couiuierce. aud Colonization vice-president. This commission is to organize an 

 instruction, experimental, aud extension service and a superior board of ad- 

 visers to assist tins service in the direction and coordination of its work. 

 The various existing agencies will be reorganized under this plan. Branches are 

 contemplated in meteorology, agrogeology, agronomy, botany, and animal pests, 

 special attention being given for the present to cereals, grapes, forage crops, 

 and tree fruits. There will be a number of experiment stations, as well as a 

 system of extension work through meetings, publications, model farms, and the 

 like, and a corps of itinerant agents or instructors. The experiment station 

 system is expected to include for the present a reorganization of the experi- 

 mental garden at Hamma, a new station at Habra for the special study of 

 irrigation and dry farming problems, aud experimental fields at Sidi-bel-Abb§s. 

 Setif, Serson, and Batua for forage crops, at Orleansville for tree fruits, at 

 Guelma for forage crops, olives, etc., at Tlemcen for fruit growing, and at 

 Kabylie for figs and olives. Dr. Charles Brunei has been appointed director of 

 agriculture under the new system. 



Agricultural Research and Education in Italian Africa. — A I'oyal decree of 

 March 3, 1914, provides for the establishment of the Agrarian Office of Tripo- 

 iitania, the direction of which has been entrusted to Prof. Emanuel Cillis of the 

 Royal High School of Agriculture of I'ortici. Grounds have been secured in the 

 city of Tripoli and the director is engaged in formulating working plans, the 

 activities of the office being divided into experimental, administrative, and mis- 

 cellaneous services. The experimental division will be located on government 

 land suri'ounding the old Turkish agricultural school in the oasis a short dis- 

 tance from Tripoli. The work of the office will include study and research in 

 cultivation by irrigation and dry farming methods, the conduct of small farming 

 units for better ascertaining the entire economic value of a given equipment, 

 animal industry with particular reference to the improvement of native species, 

 such as the camel, donkey, sheep, goat, cow. and horse, and to the increase of 

 grazing land and provender, problems relating to brackish water, farm chem- 

 istry, vegetable biology and pathology, meteorology, rural engineering (par- 

 ticularly hydraulic problems), etc. A depository for farm implements and tools 

 will be established not only for the neetls of the station but also for loan or 

 hire for private trials. 



Agricultural Instruction in Western Australia. — The newly established uni- 

 versity at Perth announces a 2-year diploma course in agriculture and a 3-year 

 course leading to the degree of B. S. in Agr., and candidates may be required 

 to pass an additional year at practical work on an approved farm. Two short 

 courses for farmers were offered at the university from June 8 to July 3. 1914, 

 including instruction in cultivation and cropping, elementary inorganic chem- 

 istry, elementary botany, and veterinary science, by means of illustrated lec- 

 tures, laboratory work, demonstrations, etc. Single lectures or short courses of 

 three lectures are also given at country centers by the university agricultural 

 staff, when time permits, in the following subjects: Principles of agriculture, 

 how crops grow, soil and its management, factors in wheat growing, soil 

 moisture and dry farming, crop rotations and forage crops, fertilizers, milk and 

 its management, breeds and management of sheep, principles of breeding, 

 breeds and care of the horse, and parasites of interest to the farmer. 



Conclusions Adopted by the International Phytopathological Congress, — The 

 International Institute of Agriculture has recently published the complete text 

 of the convention adopted and signed by the delegates at this congress (E. S. R., 

 30, p. 700), which has been submitted through the usual diplomatic channels 

 for adoption by the various signatory nations. The principal conclusions agreed 

 upon are in snl)stance as follows: 



