1918.1 EDTTOBIAL. 703 



and, finally, would exercise an action favorable to the development 

 of rural cooperation, agricultural insurance, and credit." Most of 

 the objects set forth in this letter were embodied in the treaty of 

 1905, which constitutes its basis of operations. 



The work of the Institute is now organized under foUr bureaus. 

 These consist of the General Secretary's Department and Library, 

 and the Bureaus of General Statistics, Agricultural Intelligence and 

 Plant Diseases, and Agricultural Economics. Mention should also 

 be made of the four permanent commissions corresponding to the 

 bureaus. These commissions serve as advisory bodies to the respec- 

 tive bureaus, while their presidents, together with the president 

 and vice-president of the Institute, form a special committee to deal 

 with many matters of administration. A number of special commis- 

 sions have also been created from time to time. The permanent staff 

 of employees consists mainly of abstractors, statisticians, and transla- 

 tors, and usually represents from ten to twelve nationalities. 



The General Secretary's Office is largely administrative, but also 

 includes the Library and the Bureau of Agricultural Legislation. 

 The Library is, of course, an important feature of the Institute. It 

 has now been organized eight years and consists of about 70,000 

 volumes dealing with agriculture, the natural and social sciences, 

 etc., of the various countries. Nearly 2,700 periodicals are normally 

 received, special efforts being made to secure those dealing with agri- 

 cultural economics and statistics. It is thus already among the largest 

 agricultural libraries in existence, and it is expected to build it up 

 much more extensively at the close of the war. 



The Bureau of Agricultural Legislation began work in 1911 and 

 has since published annually an International Yearbook of Agricul- 

 tural Legislation. This volume contains the texts of the most im- 

 portant enactments of the year and bibliographical references to 

 many others of less significance. It constitutes a most useful com- 

 pilation of material not otherwise assembled and most difficult of ac- 

 cess. The preparation of a five-year index to this legislation was 

 approved in 1916, but its execution has been postponed until the close 

 of the war. 



The Institute has been from the beginning particularly interested 

 in the production of statistical information as to crop and market 

 conditions. It has realized the great advantage to farmers and to 

 others of complete and authoritative information as to the state of 

 the world crops, the estimated and actual harvest, wholesale and re- 

 tail prices and their -fluctuations, trade movements, and similar factors. 

 The obtaining of such information obviously presupposes the ex- 

 istence of adequate crop reporting machinery within the various na- 

 tions, and the provision of such machinery is a national and not an 



