LEGISLATION AGAINST PLANT 

 DISEASES AND PESTS. 



THE PHYTOPATHOLOGICAL CONVENTION OF ROME 

 AND ITS RELATION TO TROPICAL AGRICULTURE. 



By A. G. L. ROGERS. 

 Board of Agriculture. 



A MOVEMENT has been on foot for many years past, 

 among some of the leading- entomologists and plant 

 pathologists of Europe, in favour of international action 

 in the direction and control of plant diseases. The 

 reasoning that has led to this movement is based on the 

 success of the International Conventions which have been 

 founded in connection with so many subjects in recent 

 years, and especially of the Berne Convention of 1880, 

 ratified by nearly every European country, and having 

 for its object the prevention of the spread of phylloxera. 

 But this agitation might have remained unimportant and 

 inoperative had it not been for the great number of 

 epidemic plant diseases which have been observed lately, 

 and the exceptional activity of certain countries in pass- 

 ing laws purporting to prevent the introduction of such 

 diseases, and actually hindering international trade to a 

 material extent. It is not only the fear of new diseases, 

 but the fear of fresh legislative restrictions, which has 

 given the movement in favour of international action so 

 great an impetus in the last few years. Recent events 

 have given it a definite shape. 



On the invitation of the French Government an Inter- 

 national Phytopathological Conference was held last 

 February in Rome, at which, after several days' dis- 

 cussion, a draft Convention was prepared, which has now 

 been submitted to the Governments of the countries 

 represented on that occasion for their consideration and 



