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diseases, and to publish that information in the Bulletin. I do 
not know from that point of view that there is any special 
necessity for the appointment of a Committee by this Congress, 
unless it is the case that possibly, as Mr. Rogers has said, 
hitherto the conditions of plant diseases in tropical countries, 
where the number of educated and intelligent people is com- 
paratively small, have naturally not had the same attention paid 
to them as has been the case in more advanced countries. 
Possibly it might be advisable for this Congress to draw the 
special attention of the Institute at Rome to those diseases 
which affect plants in tropical countries, and to those particular 
conditions which are found in tropical countries, and which are 
not existent to such an extent in countries in the temperate 
regions, where, generally speaking, there is a larger expert 
staff and a much more intelligent population to deal with. 
Mr. A. G. L. Rocers, in replying to the discussion, said: 
Mr. Chairman—A proposal, I gather, has been made for 
appointing a Committee to consider what can be done towards 
unifying and simplifying the regulations at present in force in 
tropical countries, and it is pointed out that one of the great 
difficulties is that no country is really quite certain as to the 
efficiency of the staff of other countries, and as to the value of 
the certificates which are given. If I may suggest to this 
Committee, if it be formed, a plan of procedure, I should like 
to propose that they should begin with perhaps-twenty, per- 
haps thirty, of the more important diseases affecting different 
plants, perhaps the most important plants; that they should set 
to work to procure a survey of all the more important 
countries, so that an estimate can be prepared for each country 
stating the amount of a particular disease which occurs in that 
country, and indicating what the prevalence of the disease is. 
what is the seriousness of the injury, and how far the disease is 
spreading from year to year. That will be the first means of 
finding out not only how far these diseases are spreading, but 
what is the value of the certificates given by other countries. 
It is a somewhat similar plan to that which we have adopted in 
the temperate countries. In England, for instance, we have 
a regular system by which certain diseases are under inspection, 
and a map is produced every year showing exactly the amount 
of that particular disease in each county in England. Very 
much the same sort of thing is done under the Berne Conven- 
tion relating to phylloxera; very much the same thing is done 
now with regard'to certain other diseases in temperate countries, 
and every year more and more progress is being made in that 
direction. It is only by making first a careful survey of the 
diseases in your own country, and publishing its results to the 
rest of the world, that you can ever get the confidence of other 
