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International Agricultural Institute. 



—in Art. 9 of the Convention — and those limits are 

 fixed. 



The main object of the Institute is to issue, without com- 

 ment, prompt and regular information regarding the various 

 factors which influence the prices of agricultural products; 

 to render thereby more and more difficult the speculation 

 which, without profiting the consumer, obtains at the cost of 

 the producer. 



The Institute does not aim at the middleman, as some 

 people have thought, nor does it intend to deprive traders 

 of their legitimate remuneration for useful service in distri- 

 buting produce widely and quickly. It merely proposes to 

 resist as much as possible, the influence of organisations 

 which, by means of inaccurate information, artificially cause 

 the sudden rise and fall of prices in the principal markets of 

 the world. 



The intention is to attenuate fluctuations in the prices of 

 the principal agricultural products and, to a certain extent, 

 to indicate "how to sell" and "how to buy," by promptly 

 communicating, at fixed and frequent intervals, to those who 

 are interested, reports concerning the growing crops through- 

 out the world, the stocks in store and in circulation, and the 

 probable demand. In general terms, the Institute must 

 report on the agricultural situation throughout the whole 

 world from the three-fold point of view of production, circula- 

 tion, and consumption. It is a question of special statistics 

 of which the universal, official, and dynamic character must 

 be particularly noted. 



In addition to information of a statistical nature, the Insti- 

 tute must also publish technical information. It must give 

 a record of the progress in the different branches of agri- 

 cultural science. It must collect, as in an agricultural 

 encyclopaedia kept well up to date, full details on the develop- 

 ment of agriculture in all climes and countries. 



Technical information regarding animal and vegetable 

 products, agricultural industries, legislation and rural 

 economy, agricultural education, agricultural machinery, 

 questions of transport in relation to agricultural produce and 

 other subjects, are also included in the work of the Institute. 



Further, it is a Central Office for phyto-pathological in- 



