248 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



June, 1921. 



The International Institute of Agriculture 



Proceedings of the General Assembly, November 

 3-11, 1920. 



By T. K. DOHERTY, Commissioner for Canada, and 

 Canadian Delegate to the Assembly. 



The Commissioner of tUe Interuatioual insiitute 

 Branch atteuaea tne meetmgs oi tue t ilth. Ueuerai as- 

 sembly of tne International Institute of Agriculture, 

 held at Rome, Auvember ii-11, VJM. Tnese meetmgs, 

 tne first smce 1913, were imder the general direction 

 of the Permanent President, Hon. Edunardu fantano, 

 Italian ex-Mmister of State, and under tne Cuairman- 

 ship of Hon. Senator Maggioriuo l<'erraris, also an ex- 

 Mmister. One hundred and fifteen delegates, represent- 

 ing 48 Governments, were in attendance, including prac- 

 tically all the European countries except Austria and 

 Turkey. Great Britain and Ireland had seven; United 

 States six, Spain, Sweden and Japan, each four; Bel- 

 gium, China and Holland, each three; France eleven, 

 and Italy thirteen. 



The British delegates were Sir Daniel Hall, K.C.B. 

 F.R.S., Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Agri- 

 culture and Fisheries, Mr. R. J. Thompson, O.B.E., As- 

 sistant Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries, Sir Robert Wright, LL.D., chairman of the 

 Board of Agriculture for Scotland, Mr. T. F. Gill, Se- 

 cretary to the Department of Agriculture and Technical 

 instruction for Ireland, together with Mr. J. H. Hinch- 

 eliffe and Miss Laura Stephens, of the same Department, 

 Sir Thomas ElUott, Bart. K.C.B., ex-Permanent Se- 

 cretary for Agriculture and Delegate for Great Britain 

 and the Dominions on the Permanent Committee of the 

 Institute, Dr. C. 0. A. Barber, of the University of 

 Cambridge, recently of India, Dr. I. Levi, As.sistant 

 Controller, Egyptian Department of Statistics, and :\Ir. 

 Gilbert Storey, Egyptian Entomologist. 



The Proceedings of the General Assembly were, as 

 usual, opened by His Majesty, Victor Emmanuel III, 

 King of Italy, on whose behalf it was announced he had 

 made an additional grant to the funds of the Institute 

 of one and one-half million lire from the resources of 

 his private estates. The funds are to be used for the 

 purpose of extending and improving the Institute Pa- 

 lace as may be required. 



In the inaugural addresses many eloquent references 

 were made to Mr. David Lubin, tlie foimder of the In- 

 stitute, who had died in January 1919 after a notable 

 career. It was enthusiastically and unanimously re- 

 solved that a marble bust, the work of the eminent ar- 

 tist, Mario Rutelli, be placed in the splendid atrium of 

 the'lnstitute Palace to commemorate Lubin 's great work, 

 and that the chair generally occupied by liim in the As- 

 sembly Hall be inscribed with his name and remain per- 

 manently vacant as a further tribute to his memory. The 

 ceremony, of unveiling the marble bust took place on 

 March 24th in the presence of His Majesty, the King of 

 Italy, and a large number of diplomats, including the 

 ^American Ambassador to Italy. 



The Canadian Delegate is under deep obligation for 

 the valuable advice and support of Sir Daniel Hall and 

 Sir Thomas Elliott, whose rare administrative and di- 

 plomatic knowledge and experience were placed un- 

 reservedly at his service. 



The autliorities in various Departments of the Italian 

 Government and of the Colonies and the Syndic of Rome 



spared no pains in assisting the deliberations of the As- 

 sembly and in showing courtesies to the Delegates. 



The decisions on the financial ijroblem were chiefly 

 based on the full and satisfactory report of the Vice- 

 President of the Institute, Mr. Louis Dop, of France. 

 The contributions of many adhering countries, espe- 

 cially those of Central Europe, fell into arrears during 

 the w-ar, and the Institute's resources w^ere otherwise af- 

 fected by the rise in the cost of printing and of the per- 

 sonnel. Instead of the more ambitious programme of 

 work which had been specially recommended in the 

 Vice President's report, it was decided to provide for 

 *'ie carrying out of the work in hand before the war and 



T. "K. Doherty. 



which, with an additional bonus of 500,000 lire to the 

 staff, would require an annual expenditure of 2,800,000' 

 lire against estimated receipts for each of the two years 

 1921 and 1922, under the existing contribution of only 

 1,351,000 lire. To meet the difference representing in- 

 creased expenditure, it was decided to ask the adhering 

 Governments to make a supplementary contribution for 

 the years 1921 and 1922 only, equal to one and one-half 

 times the ordinary contribution and payable by each 

 country in its own money on the basis of the par value 

 of the franc. The General Assembly, while approving 

 of this necessary expenditure for those two years, deem- 

 ed that tlie supplementary payment could be regarded 

 only as provisional, and that the n(U-mal organization of 

 the Institute, its administration, its staff and its work 

 must depend on its actual financial position in 1922 on 

 the date of the next- General Assemblj% in 1922. 



With reference to the statistical policy, the British 

 and American Delegations insisted on the allotment of 

 an adequate proportion of the contributions to the Sta- 

 tistical Services. The proncsals for greater speed in the 

 transmission and publication of crop reports, introduced 

 at the Institute by the Canadian Delegate in 1913 and in 

 the interval favourably renorted ujion by the Perma- 

 nent Committee, were finally unanimously adopted bv 

 the General Assembly. Crop reports are to be hence- 

 forth cabled by the Governments to the Institute on or 



