EDITORIAL. 5 



" Our ideal would be that every important invention, all original 

 research, every result arrived at in the theory or practice of agricul- 

 ture, should be reported in our Bulletin, so that each one of our 

 readers may be sure that there is nothing new and really important in 

 technical agriculture but is brought under his eyes." This publica- 

 tion is now being issued regularly, the abstracts which form the bulk 

 of its contents being derived from the periodicals and other publica- 

 tions received before the middle of the month preceding. Numerous 

 original articles by authorities in various parts of the world are 

 also being included and add much to its usefulness. 



One of the principal difficulties reported in the preparation of 

 the abstracts is very familiar to abstractors and translators in gen- 

 eral, namely, the frequent lack of equivalents in the various lan- 

 guages for the large number of technical terms now in use by 

 workers in agricultural science. They will, therefore, be interested to 

 learn that with a view to simplifying this problem action was taken 

 b}^ the General Assembly instructing the Permanent Committee to 

 consider the question of preparing and publishing a vocabulary of 

 the principal terms employed in agriculture. Announcement was 

 also made of a prospective office to answer inquiries submitted by 

 ' the various nations on agricultural questions in general. 



The bureau has cooperated with the International Meteorological 

 Commission, which met in Rome the previous month, in the general 

 promotion of agricultural meteorology. This topic has been urged 

 for several years by M. Louis-Dop, of France, and others, and 

 received much favorable consideration. Efforts are to be continued 

 by the institute to stimulate interest throughout the world and to 

 establish a permanent international commission of agricultural mete- 

 orology, composed of meteorologists, agronomists, botanists, phy- 

 topathologists, and agrogeologists, for the study of meteorological 

 conditions as related to crop production. 



The question most debated by both the commission and the Gen- 

 eral Assembly concerned the promulgation of an international agree- 

 ment with reference to the control of plant diseases. A number of 

 propositions were submitted on this subject, which was felt to present 

 several aspects of unusual complexity. An unsuccessful effort to 

 convoke at Rome a conference of specialists to study the problem in 

 detail was reported. Under the agreement eventually reached, the 

 maintenance in all countries of a governmental phytopathological 

 service was recommended. The project for an international gather- 

 ing of specialists was endorsed as indispensable and the hope was 

 expressed that the French Government mighj; take the initiative 

 therein by calling such a conference not later than May, 1914. 



With reference to the remaining projects of the Bureau of Agricul- 

 tural Intelligence and Plant Diseases, resolutions were adopted affirm- 



