IMPERIAL CO OPERATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 106, 8 May 1933, Page 10

IMPERIAL CO OPERATION

RESEARCH IN AGRICULTURE VALUABLE WORK OF THE EMPIRE BUREAUX STRIKING GENERAL DEVELOPMENT DURING YEAR

“The Bureaux offer an outstanding example of national economy secured through co-operation in finance,” states the third annual report of the Executive Council of the Imperial Agricultuial Bureaux. From the experience which has been gained in the three years during which the Bureaux have been in existence the council believes that the services which they are called t o perform are in modem conditions indispensable to the effective condu ct of research into agricultural and veterinary problems.

There are eight bureaux, financed by the British Government, the dominions, and the colonics. They are controlled by the Executive Council, which is composed of representatives appointed by the Governments of the Empire. The Government of the Bahamas, which in the first instance had only agreed to support tho bureaux for one year, rejoined after one year’s absence, an acknowledgment m itself of the value of the work being pursued by these bodies. The bureaux have been established in response to a definite need felt by research workers in agricultural science for the collection, collation, and dissemination of information on research being carried out in different, parts of tho world, as welt as to fulfil a desire for contact between the workers themselves in different parts of the Empire. These contacts between Bureaux and research workers show a striking general development during the year under review.

The outstanb’ng feature of the report, however, that it marks for the first time the regulat issue of journals from practically al! the bureaux. Thej>e journals emkocy information abstracted from scientific periodicals in almost every-language and from almost. every country. Horticultural Abstracts, issued by the Bureau of Fruit Production at East Mailing, has received the following tribute from the United States:—

“Horticultural Abstracts is too good for me not to have it regularly on my desk instead of having to go to the library every time I want to refer to it. The question now is: What will it cost, and how'can I secure it? If you send me this information it is possible that I can place three or four orders.’* The other journals issued are the Veterinary Bulletin, monthly, from Weybridge; List of Publications Relating to Soils and Fertilisers, monthly, from Rothamsted; Plant Breeding Abstracts, quarterly, from Cambridge;

Herbage Abstracts, quarterly, from Aberystwith; Bulletin on Annual Genetics, quarterly, from Edinburgh; Abstracts on Agricultural Parasitology prepared by tne bureau at St. Albans, appear in the Quarterly Journal of Helminthology, whilst the journal issued from Aberdeen—Nutrition Abstract and Reviews—reveals co-opera-tion between the General Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom, the trustees of the Reid Library, and the Executive Council of the Imperial Agricultural Bureaux.

The analysis of the year’s expenditure bears testimony to the large part played by these journals in the work of the bureaux. Over 90 per cent, of the gross expenditure has been incurred in the examination, abstraction and distribution of scientific information, and in the purchase of necessary scientific books and periodicals. This expenditure also covers the issue of special bibliographies on particular subjects together with a review summarising the main points in those literature catalogues.

The advantages to any research worker of receiving information of the developments taking place in his own subject throughout the world, as w’cll as having a ready-made bibliography need scarcely bo emphasised. Beyond that, 'the agricultural scientist has the benefit of a list of those working in his veld with whom he is at liberty to communicate. He can also apply for the translation of foreign articles. During the year translations have been supplied by tho bureaux of papers issued in most European languages (including Russian, Scandinavian, Hungarian, and Polish), and of a few in Japanese.

A perusal of this report can leave no doubt as to the service rendered by the Imperial Agricultural Bureaux through co-operation between the dominions, India, the colonies, and the Homo Country, to those engaged in research into agricultural and veterinary problems throughout the Empire.