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International Agricultural Institute. 



economic, or social information, the Institute can know 

 nothing from within. It has merely a reflex existence. 

 Synthetically it is, and can only be, as a converging lens 

 which receives impressions from the component States; 

 materially, it is too far removed from the field of action. 



Alone and isolated, the Institute would be impotent. But, 

 as the brain elaborates the messages which are collected and 

 transmitted to it by the nerves, so the Institute will receive 

 and collate the information supplied by the adhering Govern- 

 ments. Its activity and its utility will mostly depend on their 

 eagerness to send information and working material. 



Nor need the assistance end there. Countries which have 

 reached an exalted place in civilisation, in scientific and 

 practical discovery, have not always attained an analogous 

 position in the organisation and administration of their 

 Public Service. On certain portions of the structure much 

 care has been bestowed, and less on others. Not infrequently 

 a chain has broken because one link was weak. This is a 

 result of the conditions and necessities of national life. 

 Economic and social institutions, for instance, may have 

 reached the highest stage of efficiency in a country where 

 agricultural statistics and bibliography lag behind. In 

 another country the order may be reversed ; so that the same 

 degree of perfection cannot be expected in the administrative 

 and technical Departments of all countries, or even an exact 

 counterpart in two or more States. 



The Institute, basing its work on information supplied by 

 all the Governments, will therefore be unable to publish for 

 the whole world results in such a complete form as those of 

 certain Governments which have reached a certain degree 

 of perfection. To attain that maximum of excellence is the 

 ideal in view. 



In practice, the Institute will only be in a position to give 

 a universal average, raising that average gradually up to 

 the highest point reached by the country which is foremost 

 in this respect. The moral influence and the irresistible 

 incentive which the Institute will give in this connection 

 cannot be over-stated. By indicating the most perfect 

 organisation and its advantage to the countries where it 

 fortunately exists, a feeling of emulation will surely be 



