994 International Agricultural Institute, [march, 



Agricultural Institute seems now to have overcome its 

 initial difficulties, and that during the past year its labours 

 have assumed a practical form. Substantial progress has 

 been made towards the attainment of the main object in view, 

 the construction of a certain and a wide basis for forming 

 real prices of agricultural products. To accomplish this end 

 a vast amount of preliminary work was entailed. Not only 

 was it necessary to organise a competent staff within the 

 Institute, but a certain uniformity of system had to be intro- 

 duced into the statistical departments of the various countries 

 adhering. As a first and preliminary step, a volume was 

 published of the statistics of areas cultivated, and of animal 

 production in the countries represented in the Institute. 

 These were then asked to supply statistical information on 

 a uniform plan adopted by the General Assembly of the 

 Institute. As a result of the preliminary efforts, Germany, 

 Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Mexico, 

 Chile, Costa Rica, Greece, and China have agreed either 

 to institute a new service of agricultural statistics or to 

 reorganise their existing service, in order as far as possible 

 to facilitate the work in contemplation. The extent to which 

 it was possible to obtain official statistics having been ascer- 

 tained, the Governments adhering were asked to supply 

 certain definite information on a uniform plan. It was decided 

 that, in the first instance, crop reports and other data should 

 be published on seven staples : wheat, rye, oats, barley, 

 maize, rice, and cotton. A knowledge of the volume of 

 supply having been obtained, the Institute then summarised 

 the figures for publication, co-ordinated the official reports, 

 and reduced them to a common uniform standard. The 

 system which the Institute has adopted, and which the 

 countries adhering have agreed to follow, is that of "the 

 single numerical statement " already in use in the Department 

 of Agriculture in the United States. The normal yield in 

 each particular country having been established through 

 ascertaining the average for several years past, 100 is taken 

 as the standard figure, and any increase or decrease is 

 recorded; thus 101 would show an increase of i per cent., 

 and 99 a decrease of i per cent, in the annual yield. The 

 publication of the summary in the form of the ' single 



