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is hampered for want of facilities for knowing what has been done, or is being done, elsewhere.
5. It should therefore, I think, be the first function of the Bureau to get into touch, as directly as possible, with mycological workers in outlying parts of the Empire, and get them to refer to us for information that may not be accessible to them. For this purpose we must be in a position to give them all the references to any problem they may be engaged on or be about to take up. This entails the main- tenance at the Bureau of very complete card indexes of mycological and plant pathological literature. Not less than 500 separate periodicals and reports, most of which appear several times a year, will have to be gone through annually.
6. To make this work available for the benefit of the general body of mycolo- gists and plant pathologists overseas it may be either:
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(a) embodied in a periodical abstracting journal, as is done by the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, which publishes a monthly "Review of Applied Entomology,"
(b) furnished to inquirers in response to requests for information on specific subjects, or
(c) published in skeleton form as titles only, supplemented by more detailed information as in (b), and by an annual review of the literature dealing with the more important tropical crops, sugar-cane, tea, coffee, cacao, rubber, palms, tobacco, and the like.
7. The first of these methods is the best, but even if adopted will have to be supplemented at times by the second. In considering it, it is necessary to bear in mind that the field is already partly covered by existing journals, especially Botanical Abstracts, Phytopathology (both American), Zeitschrift für Pflanzen- krankheiten, and Centralblatt für Bakteriologie, Parasitenkunde und Infektions- krankheiten (both German). None of these is, however, really satisfactory from the point of view of workers in the tropical and some other parts of the British Empire, and there is no good abstracting journal published in Great Britain that deals with the subject. To be of real use, such a journal must cover the whole field of vegetable pathology not already covered by the Review of Applied Entomology, and must abstract journals in all European languages and Japanese. A competent staff of abstractors would be required at headquarters, supplemented in certain cases by foreign help. The Bureau of Entomology pays fees to abstractors in Japan and Scandinavia. The cost would be heavy, and the sales would only pay a fraction of it. In the Bureau of Entomology the net cost of printing and publishing the Review is given as £700 per annum, plus £230 for rent, etc., of publication office, £1.297 for salaries of three abstractors on the revised scale recently proposed, and £70 for fees to translators; and this total of £2,297 is exclusive of the salary of the Assistant Director, who is in charge of the publication office, or of those of various other members of the staff who take part in the work connected with the Review. I do not think that a good abstracting journal could be run by the Bureau of Mycology under £1,750 per annum for salaries and all expenses (see Appendix I). As the total grant for the Bureau is only £2,000, it is obvious that we cannot aim at starting an independent journal at present.
8. As an alternative, I have considered the question of approaching the editor of some existing journal with a suggestion that the Bureau's abstracts should be published therein. I only know of two possible journals, the Review of Applied Entomology, already several times referred to, and the Kew Bulletin of Miscel laneous Information. The former would have to alter its title to one such as Review of Applied Entomology and Mycology, and would be increased in size to almost double the existing "Series A (Agricultural)" portion. In the Kew Bulletin the title would not be affected, but the scope of the publication, which at present does not include abstracts, would be altered appreciably. As it is most important to get the abstracts published as rapidly as possible they should appear monthly, and each monthly part might be expected to be from 30 to 50 pages, with an annual index of, say, 50 pages. With either of these journals the cost of printing some 500 pages annually would be about £400, and salaries of the extra staff required would be about £1,300, plus another £50 for translations abroad (see Appendix I). This is, equally with the first proposal, beyond the present resources of the Bureau. 9. The second method must, therefore, be employed as fully as the resources.
of the Bureau permit, until such time as the first can be adopted.
10. Whether in addition skeleton lists of titles only, together with an annual general review of the work on the more important plantation crops, can be published
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will depend on finances. It will be seen below that the present grant for the Bureau does not allow anything for printing and publishing, if its other functions are to be properly fulfilled.
11. Å second main function of the Bureau, equal in importance to the first, is the organization of a system for the prompt identification of parasitic fungi sent in from workers in the overseas parts of the Empire. This will be a very heavy part of the work, even in the early days of the Bureau, as the fungi in many parts of the Empire are little known. It is only of recent years that collections of parasitic fungi have been made in some of the Colonies, while others have scarcely done anything in this direction as yet. Many of the collections that have been made have not found their way to England, but have been either preserved on the spot or distributed to other countries in Europe or America. It will be necessary to make every
effort to build up at the Bureau a large collection of these parasites and to get them accurately identified and notes on their distribution and effects carefully recorded. A great deal of this work will have to be done by the staff of the Bureau themselves, as mycologists have not the same facilities as entomologists for obtaining the assistance of specialists in the different groups. It is this diffi- culty, combined with the paucity of amateur mycologists, that has been largely responsible for the imperfection of our knowledge of the fungi of many parts of the Empire. There is no direction in which the Bureau can be of greater help to overseas workers than in advancing knowledge of the fungus flora of the different areas. To enlist the co-operation of systematists in this work it may be necessary to offer fees for identifications, as has long been the practice in entomology, but the expenditure under this head will be negligible at first, and never large. The Bureau of Entomology proposes £100 per annum for identifications, but we would not reach that figure for several years and nothing has been included in the accompanying estimate specifically for such work. The publication of this information can probably be arranged for in existing journals without cost to the Bureau.
12. A third function of the Bureau should be to establish a reference library on the subject of plant diseases and provide facilities for consultation by all interested in this subject. At present the headquarters contain a very valuable collection of books lent from the general library of the Royal Botanic Gardens for the use of the Laboratory of Plant Pathology. If this arrangement can he con- tinued when the latter laboratory is moved to Harpenden, the Bureau will not only be saved heavy expense but will contain many volumes that are out of print and difficult to procure. I suggest, therefore, that the Committee approach the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in order to ascertain whether he would be prepared to give us the very great help that would result from a continuance of the present arrangement, even though the Bureau is not a part of his establishment. Á lump sum grant of about £200 will, however, still be required to supplement this collec- tion and duplicate certain works that will be in constant use in both the general In addition, it will be library of the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Bureau.
separates" as necessary to build up as large a collection of pamphlets and " possible, and to ask overseas workers to send in two copies of all their reports and publications with a view to issuing them on loan to approved applicants. This is done by the Bureau of Tropical Diseases, and is of great value to isolated workers. 13. Furthermore, it will be a great advantage if the Bureau can provide accommodation and facilities for work to overseas workers when in England, and I am sure facilities of this nature will be welcomed by them. There is enough space at present for a few such workers, but experience alone will show whether anything further is required than certain fittings and apparatus in the upper rooms. not yet had time to go into the question of furniture and fittings in any detail.
14. There are various other directions in which the Bureau can be of service. Mycologists in the less advanced Colonies often have difficulties in regard to obtain- ing suitable types of sprayers and allied appliances for treating diseases in crops. They are out of touch with recent developments and at a distance from the manu- facturers. The Government of India recently deputed an officer at home on leave to examine post-War developments in this direction, and he has informed me that he has obtained much valuable information. With the advantage of being near the British manufacturers, and aided by the co-operation and practical experience of the plant pathology staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Bureau should be able to give useful advice on such matters. Similarly, it is diff cult for Colonial workers to keep in touch with the legislative measures for the protection of crops from dangerous diseases that have been so widely adopted in
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