GENERAL INTRODUCTION 



Bivium enim nobis ad culturam dedit Natura, 

 experientiam et imitationem. Antiquissimi agri- 

 colae tentando pleraque constituerunt, liberi 

 eorum magnam pattern imitando. Nos utrumque 

 facere debemus, et imitari alios, et aliter ut 

 faciamus experientia tentare quaedam : sequen- 

 tes non aleam, sed rationem aliquam. 



M. T. VARRONIS, De Agricultura 

 lib. I, c. XVIII. 



The Bureau of Agricultural Intelligence and of Diseases of 

 Plants, in the International Institute of Agriculture, collects 

 and compiles information published, day by day, in the whole 

 world, on agricultural progress and on scientific and technical 

 investigations into the several branches of farming and of the 

 industries connected therewith. 



It thus deals with all that is being done, in every part 

 of the globe: 



to reclaim and make healthy deserted regions, bringing 

 them under the dominion of man ; 



to improve land already under cultivation, increasing 

 its fitness for habitation and culture ; 



to increase the quantity and improve the quality of agri- 

 cultural products; 



to preserve or restore forests on mountains and coast- 

 lands, safe-guarding the area of fertile land and preparing 

 sources of future energy and wealth. 



Besides collecting information on the measures taken to 

 enlarge in all countries from the most civilised to the remote 



