Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE ANOTHER international movement with which "" I was closely connected was the International Institute of Agriculture, embodying the international idea in another form, and I am proud to have been associated with its initiation. David Lubin, its originator, travelled far and wide early in the present century with his important scheme for setting up an observation post from which the harvests of the world could be surveyed. Lubin, a very remarkable man of wide vision and great persistence, an American citizen, who had worked out his great idea down to its details, found that the Governments of Europe were very difficult to move. He journeyed from country to country, outlining to Governments his plan to build up an organization which would collect and supply to the people concerned information on the quality and quantity of animal and vegetable products, their prices on the various markets, give early warning of diseases breaking out in any section of the plant world, and give reliable forecasts of harvests and crops. All this work was as usefulto producers, manufacturers and consumers as it was damaging to the pure speculators who utilize a shortage of crops anywhere as a means for amassing wealth. I have always taken a very active interest in agriculture, and have maintained associations with it throughout most of my business life. The cotton industry itself depends primarily upon agriculture, and the two industries are largely responsible for the feeding and the clothing of the world. My interest in the work of David Lubin was consequently very great, and when he wrote to me in 1904 asking my assistance, as the president of the newly formed International Cotton Committee, in his efforts to set up the International Insti...