134 The International Institute of Agriculture. 



The first work undertaken by the Institute's Bureau of 

 Statistics was to study the organisation of the agricultural 

 statistical services in different countries, and the volume in 

 which the results of these studies were published is a work 

 of great value to any one interested in statistical method. In 

 January, 1910, was published the first issue of the " Monthly 

 Bulletin of Agricultural Statistics." This periodical is now 

 published about the 20th of each month, in five languages, 

 including English, and it contains information which cannot be 

 obtained from any other source. The statements as to area, 

 production and condition of crops are based on reports sent 

 direct to the Institute from the Governments of the different 

 countries. Moreover, for the purposes of comparison, the 

 figures as to area and production are in each case expressed as 

 a percentage of the similar figure for the preceding year. The 

 work of organising such a service must have been very great, 

 and the success which has already been obtained is surprising. 

 The Canadian Ministry of Agriculture, in a circular letter 

 issued to the Press early in 1910, prophesied that " the 

 reliability of the statistical data supplied to the Institute 

 by the several Governments will increase, so that in a reason- 

 able time, the estimates of the crops from all the countries of 

 the world, published by this Clearance House of statistical 

 and agricultural information, will have much greater value 

 than any heretofore published." No one will doubt to-day that 

 the prophecy was a true one. Had the work of the Institute 

 been confined to agricultural statistics, its establishment would 

 have been justified, but it has other important duties to perform. 



Agricultural Intelligence and Plant Diseases. 



In the words of the Marquis Capelli, its President, "the 

 Institute probably receives, and, what is more, examines, a 

 greater number of agricultural periodicals than any other 

 institution in the world ; and this monthly voyage, as it were, 

 round the earth, passing in review all forms of cultivation and 

 noticing all new ideas relating to agriculture, has an exceptional 

 interest to all those who are engaged in agriculture." The 

 results of the monthly review of agricultural periodicals are 

 published in The Bulletin of the Bureau of Agricultural 

 Intelligence and of Plant Diseases. When this Bulletin was 

 first contemplated it was thought by many people that its aim 

 would be very similar to that of the Experiment Station 

 Record, which has been published for many years by the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture. As a matter of fact its aim is 

 quite different. The American publication is a most useful, 

 indeed an indispensable, index to the more important experi- 

 mental work conducted throughout the world, although, 



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