20 



International Agricultural Institute. 



have already rendered important services to the agricultural 

 world. 



As regards analogous action on the part of Governments, 

 only a few attempts, timid and isolated, can be traced, e.g., 

 the endeavour on the part of the French Government in 1878 

 to organise international agricultural statistics as recom- 

 mended by the International Statistical Congress, the 

 Phylloxera Conventions, the Conventions for the Protection 

 of Birds, and the Sugar Conventions. 



The good results obtained in certain cases suggested oppor- 

 tunities of agreement on a wider basis, and the subject 

 attracted the attention of an enthusiastic American citizen, 

 Mr. David Lubin. Firmly convinced of the injurious effects 

 of the isolation of agriculturists, impressed by the defective 

 and empirical methods which obtain in agricultural produc- 

 tion and trade, moved by the loss and, too frequently, the 

 ruin caused by the effects of speculation in agricultural 

 produce, he decided to make the attempt of placing on an 

 international basis the consideration of questions which affect 

 the agriculture of the world in order to provide a means 

 whereby producers could be shielded from the bad effects of 

 harvests which are precarious, uncertain, and consequently 

 unprofitable. The intention was to bring the production and 

 consumption of the whole world more into harmony — a noble 

 idea, but a difficult task which, moreover, seemed hopeless 10 

 very many economists and agriculturists. 



The task, however difficult, and the ideal to be attained, 

 attracted and captivated the King of Italy, H.M. King Victor 

 Emmanuel III., who undertook to carry out Mr. Lubin's 

 suggestion. It was this kingly enterprise which created in 

 1905 the International Agricultural Institute of Rome. 



These observations are necessary to explain the intention 

 of the foundation of the International Agricultural Institute, 

 and in order to indicate the many difficulties — technical, 

 administrative, and diplomatic — which confront the repre- 

 sentatives of the various Governments to whom is entrusted 

 the important task of completing so vast and complicated a 

 scheme without interfering with the supreme rights of indi- 

 vidual States. 



