132 The International Institute of Agriculture. 



but the executive body is the Permanent Committee which 

 meets in the Institute constantly. Great Britain is repre- 

 sented on the Permanent Committee by Mr. H. G. Dering, 

 Councillor at the British Embassy at Rome, who also acts as the 

 representative of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, 

 India, and Mauritius. To Mr. Dering and to Sir Thomas Elliott, 

 the late Secretary of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 

 who was one of the British delegates at the Conference in May, 

 1905, and has since taken a deep interest in the work and 

 welfare of the Institute, agriculturists of the United Kingdom 

 are greatly indebted for their constant and successful efforts 

 to direct the work of the Institute into channels of the greatest 

 utility to this country and the Empire. 



Objects. 



The aim of the Institute is very different from that of any 

 national Agricultural Department, inasmuch as what is only 

 incidental to the work of the latter is the primary object of the 

 former. When an agricultural department is estalDlished its 

 main objects usually are (1) to administer laws relating 

 to animal and plant diseases, land tenure, adulteration of 

 agricultural produce, &c., and (2) to distribute grants for 

 the promotion of agricultural education, experiments and 

 research and other activities aiming at the development of 

 agriculture. The collection and dissemination of information 

 likely to prove of use to agriculturists is in most cases 

 of secondary importance. With one or two notable excep- 

 tions the existing agricultural departments devote almost 

 the whole of their energies to what may be described as 

 " administrative work " and the collection of statistics. The 

 demands of work of this type are so constant and so pressing 

 that staff can rarely be spared for work which, though of 

 immense importance, is of less immediate utility, viz., the 

 collection and distribution of general scientific intelligence. 

 It would surprise most agriculturists to know the small amount 

 out of the total budgets of the agricultural departments of 

 Europe which is expended on " intelligence " work, and even 

 of this small sum by far the greater portion is expended in 

 connection with the collection and publication of statistical 

 intelligence. With the International Institute of Agriculture 

 the position is entirely different. The Institute administers no 

 laws, distributes no grants, employs no staff of inspectors, and 

 expends no time on " Parliamentary Business." The staff is 

 engaged almost wholly in collecting, collating and publishing 

 information. So far as its work relates to agricultural statistics 

 the function of the Institute is to co-ordinate and publish inter- 

 nationally information collected by each State nationally. On 



