316 



[October, 1912. 



INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF 

 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE AND 

 COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. 



The attention of members of the Ceylon Agricultural Society is drawn 

 to the following notice of the formation of a British Section of the 

 International Association of Tropical Agriculture and Colonial Develop- 

 ment and the invitation to join the British Section will we feel sure 

 appeal strongly to many. The privilege of having a room reserved for 

 Members of the Section and the use of the General Library and Reading 

 rooms at the Imperial Iustitute, the Mecca of all Tropical Agriculturists 

 within the Empire, is no slight one ; while the Bulletin oj the Imperial 

 Institute takes foremost rank with the magazines of Tropical Agriculture, 

 collecting within its pages the views and experiences of leading autho- 

 rities with whom it is in constant touch. 



British Section. 



The International Association of Tropical Agriculture and Colonial 

 Development was founded at the close of the first International Congress 

 of Tropical Agriculture held in Paris in 1905. 



The object of the Association is the promotion of the scientific and 

 practical study of all questions connected with tropical agriculture and 

 the development and utilisation of the natural resources of the Colonies. 

 The first President of the Association was M. de Lanessan, formerly 

 Governor-General of IndoChina and Minister for the Colonies in Paris, 

 who held that office until May, 1910, when he was succeeded by Professor 

 Wyndham Dunstan, LL.D., F.R.S., Director of the Imperial Institute. 

 The Association has its headquarters in Paris and is governed by an 

 International Board, from which an Executive Committee of from five 

 to seven administrators is selected. 



Several of the European countries have formed sections for facilitat- 

 ing the work of the Association locally and a British Section has now 

 been constituted in London. 



The work of the Association consists in promoting investigations into 

 questions of special importance to tropical agriculture, in publishing the 

 results of these enquiries, and in organising International Congresses for 

 the discussion of the problems of Tropical Agriculture and Colonial 

 Development. 



In May, 1910, the Second International Congress of Tropical Agricul- 

 ture and Colonial Development, orgauised by the Association, was held 

 at Brussels. At this Congress reports on various enquiries initiated by 

 the Association were read and discussed. 



These reports and papers are now in course of publication and a large 

 number of important papers on various subjects connected with tropical 

 agriculture and colonial development were contributed. A short account 

 ot the proceedings of the Congress, with abstracts of the reports and 

 papers read by British members, is published in the " Bulletin of the 

 Imperial Institute," Vol, viii, 1910, No. 2, from which it will be seen that 

 much useful work was accomplished and that the international enquiries 

 conducted by the Association are already yielding results which are likely 

 to be of the greatest importance to those interested in tropical agriculture 

 and colonial development in the British Empire 



British participation in the Brussels Congress was arranged for by a 

 British Committee, and at a meeting of this Committee, held at the close of 



