April 1907.] 249 Miscellaneous, 



(a) To collect, elaborate, and publish, with as little delay as possible, 

 statistical, technical, or economic information regarding the cultivation of the soil, 

 its production, whether animal or vegetable, the trade in agricultural products, and 

 the prices obtained on the various markets. 



(6) To send to interested parties, in a similarly rapid manner full information 

 of the nature above-mentioned. 



(c) To indicate the wages of rural labour. 



(d) To notify all new diseases of plants which may appear in any part of the 

 world, indicating the districts affected, the spread of the disease, and, if possible, 

 the efficacious means of resistance. 



(e) To consider questions relating to agricultural co-operation, insurance, 

 and credit, in all their forms, collecting and publishing information which may be 

 useful in the various countries for the organization of undertakings relating to 

 agricultural co-operation, insurance, and credit. 



(f) To present, if expedient, to the Governments, for their approval, 

 measures for the protection of the common interests of agriculturists and 

 for the improvement of their condition after having previously taken every 

 means of obtaining the necessary information, e.g., resolutions passed by Inter- 

 national Congrsses or other Congresses relating to agriculture or to science 

 applied to Agriculture, Agricultural Societies, Academies, Learned Societies, &c. 



All questions relating to the economic interests, the legislation and adminis- 

 tration of any particular State are to be excluded from the sphere of the Institute. 



The States adhering to the Institute will be classified into five groups, 

 according to the place which each State considers best to select. 



The number of votes at the disposal of each State, and the number of units 

 of subscription, are fixed according to a scale by which the units of subscription 

 may vary from one to sixteen and the votes from one to five. In any case the con- 

 tribution corresponding to each unit of subscription can never exceed the sum of 

 2,500 francs (£100). As a temporary measure, the subscription for the first two years 

 will not exceed the sum of 1,500 francs (£60) for each unit. 



In order to assist by his personal help towards the foundation and main- 

 tenance of the Institute, His Majesty the King of Italy was pleased to present to 

 the Institute the control and the revenues of two domains in the environs of Pisa, 

 estimated to produce an annual income of some 300,000 francs (£12,000). Pending the 

 legal constitution of the Institute, this magnificent benefaction has been assigned 

 to a Royal Commission as from the 1st of July, 1905, and it has been decided to 

 devote the income accruing from that date to the construction of a house to form 

 the seat of the Institute. 



The new building, which will be constructed in the grounds of the Villa 

 Umberto I., in the neighbourhood of the Pincian Gate, on an area of 10,000 square 

 metres of State property, will in all probability be completed towards the end of 1907. 



The British delegates, in their report on the proceedings of the Conference, 

 after describing the steps which led up to the conclusions embodied in the " Acte 

 Final," make the following general observations on the purposes which it is hoped 

 the International Institute will not unworthily fulfill : — 



" It will be apparent from a perusal of the ' Acte Final ' of the Conference 

 that the proposed Institute will in effect constitute an International Agricultural 

 Intelligence Department for the collection, collation and publication of technical, 

 economic, and statistical information of interest to agriculturists, special pro- 

 minence being given to the questions of co-operation, insurance and credit. It is 

 true that provision is also made for the submission to the various Governments of 



