24 International Agricultural Institute. 



tation ; (2) to indicate the lines of work ; and (3) to prepare a 

 financial scheme. 



Such was the complicated problem which the Convention 

 of 1905 endeavoured to solve by limiting its terms to their 

 simplest form. The Convention thus became the charter of 

 the International Agricultural Institute giving it vitality, 

 action, and independence. 



It would be unjust to omit reference to the remarkable 

 analogy between the views of the French Government on 

 the organisation and working of the Institute and the prin- 

 ciples which formed the groundwork of the Convention of 

 1905. The opinions of the French Government were ex- 

 plained in a letter written by M. Ruau, Minister of Agri- 

 culture, when the Conference was summoned. With clear 

 and accurate foresight of the main object of the Institute, and 

 with keen perception of the best means for its attainment, 

 M. Ruau stated the French case as follows : — 



"The creation of an International Agricultural Institute on 

 the plan intended by H.M. the King of Italy seems to have 

 an object analogous to that of the French Office of Agri- 

 cultural Intelligence, and appears to be similarly adapted 

 to act as a bond of union between the different nations. 

 The utility of an International Agricultural Institute as a 

 Central and International Office of Agricultural Intelligence 

 would appear to be incontestable. It seems necessary, how- 

 ever, to limit the role of this Institute exclusively to the 

 three following- subjects : — (1) the centralisation and publica- 

 tion of statistical, technical, or economic intelligence con- 

 cerning rural economy, and the culture, production of, and 

 trade in, agricultural produce ; (2) the comparative study of 

 questions of a technical or economic order, which appear to 

 possess a general interest from an agricultural point of view ; 

 (3) the supply of information, in the form of resolutions, 

 calling the attention of the various Governments, if necessary, 

 to measures of a general and non-contentious character." 



M. Ruau subsequently added that in view of the financial 

 assistance which the different States would be bound to give, 

 it was difficult to conceive the organisation of the Inter- 

 national Institute on any other lines than by the meeting of 

 permanent delegates of the different contracting Powers, 



