The Raymond Andrew Ioanes Papers include correspondence and memoranda from the Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS), speeches given by Ioanes, and two photographs. Topics include the 20th-century history of FAS, foreign agricultural trade, the dispersal of surplus agricultural products in foreign countries, and trade relations with Russia, the European Community (EC), and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Materials relating to the Association for Diplomatic Studies' Foreign Affairs Oral History Program, for which Ioanes acted as both an interviewer and interviewee, are represented. These include interviews conducted by Ioanes and two copies, one edited manuscript and one finalized, of an interview in which he is the interviewee. Foreign Affairs Oral History Program materials are housed at Georgetown University.

One of the world's leading agricultural economists, T.W. Schultz, recently published an estimate of the effect of the adoption of new techniques on the efficiency of United States' agriculture. Schultz estimated the average increase in efficiency at from 0.8 per cent to 1.35 per cent per annum over the period 1910 to 1950, the rate of increase being even higher in recent years. The statistics available do not permit a similar calculation for Australia. However, the systems of agriculture and the types of technical advances made in Australia and the United States are not dissimilar, and it is known that increases in the productivity of labour in the two countries are roughly equivalent, so that an assumption of an annual one per cent increase in the efficiency of Australian agriculture seems reasonable. On this basis, it can be calculated that the adoption of improved techniques is currently adding about L11 million per annum to the net va1ue of Australian rural production. If an increase in efficiency of one per cent per annum is actually being achieved, there can be litt1e doubt that the potential increase physically possible is greater than one per cent. The slow and incomplete adoption of improved techniques in primary industry leaves a very large gap between potential and actual performance. The size of this gap is a problem for speculation rather than calculation. However, to put the problem into perspective, it is suggested that if the rate of adoption of improved methods could be doubled (as no doubt it could), the net value of Australian agricultural production would increase by an extra L11 million per annum. These estimates illustrate the great importance of both agricultural research and of measures designed to encourage the adoption of the results of that research. They point broadly to the conclusion that government investment for these purposes will yield excellent dividends.

Desde su creación en 1913, la Estación Arrocera de Sueca ha concedido especial atención a los trabajos de investigación y experimentación precisos para ofrecer a los agricultores arroceros semillas de variedades adaptadas al medio, a la forma de cultivo y a las preferencias del mercado consumidor. En permanente contacto con productores e industriales y sus respectivas agrupaciones (Federación Sindical de Agricultores Arroceros de España y Federación de Industriales Elaboradores de Arroz de España), ha venido facilitando lotes seleccionados de aquellas semillas que se consideraban de interés, así como las informaciones y advertencias precisas para su mejor aprovechamiento, y en consecuencia, su labor ha sido conocida en el ambiente arrocero y ha proporcionado los beneficios pretendidos, logrando que nuestra nación, pese a las diversas dificultades porque ha atravesado, haya permanecido y permanezca a la cabeza de la producción mundial en rendimientos por hectárea. Describir más ampliamente esta labor de la Estación Arrocera de Sueca con sus antecedentes y detalles es el objeto de la presente publicación, que en el futuro podrá completarse por años. En esta ocasión se ha considerado conveniente dedicar una Primera Parte a resumir datos relativos a épocas anteriores al año 1952, la Segunda Parte a describir en forma detallada los trabajos de la Estación Arrocera de Sueca en el año 1952, e incluir en la Tercera Parte la descripción de las principales razas de arroz que actualmente se cultivan o ensayan en España.

Dado el progreso creciente de la protección de las plantas cultivadas y de las complejas cuestiones inherentes a la designación de los insectos, enfermedades criptogámicas, virus, roedores, ácaros, enfermedades fisiológicas y de carencia, así como también a los insecticidas, acaricidas, herbicidas, fungicidas y demás productos fitoterapéuticos, complicado por la falta muchas veces de criterios definidos dentro de las naciones y consecuentemente en el terreno internacional, se propugna la creación de Comités nacionales en el seno de los respectivos Ministerios de Agricultura, encargados de sistematizar para cada país su terminología fitopatológica de acuerdo con un criterio aceptado internacionalmente, así como la de establecer las necesarias equivalencias entre las normas que pudieran adoptarse en los distintos países o entre grupos de países del mismo idioma.

CONSTRUCTION with the aid of mechanical equipment has come into vogue in recent years, more after World War II. Progress in production, either for military or civil purposes, has normally accen-tuated the necessity and the military demands created a great urge for speeding up produc-tion. It is, therefore, natural that output in munitions and allied construction works seems to be at maximum level when a country is in great danger, politically and nationally. This is seen by the speedy development of atomic energy by many nations, although the scientists have been working for decades on atomic research. Economy and speed are the two essential factors in the use of mechanical equipment for construction. The whole outlook of mechanical excavation is based on the advent of the commercially successful high speed diesel ignition oil engine and on the evaluation of various track link devices. The foremost patents of oil engines were registered in the names of Herbert Akroyd Stuart and Charles Binney in the year 1890 in the United Kingdom, about three years before Dr. Diesel, who registered only in 1893. British engineers claim to be pioneers in the field of development of successful track laying tractors. This tractor was designed by David Roberts of Grantham, U.K., and this historic machine was apparently power-ed by a two-cylinder Hornsby oil engine which was immediately called Caterpillar.

An expedition was undertaken under the auspices of Gujarat University to make a preliminary investigation about the desert areas in Gujarat. The expedition was under the leadership of Dr. K. R. Ramnathan of Physical Research Laboratory. ( Seven persons left on 14th June 1952 for Zinzuwada, one of the starting points of the desert.) General Description The area appears to contain quantities of iron sulphide, gypsum, common salt and other soluble salts. The portion investigated was on the border line of the desert, rather than the area of the desert itself. The area contained a number of islands called ' Bets ' consisting of small hamlets in the compara- tively more productive lands in the belts of the rivers, Benas, Rupen and Saraswati. The crops taken are wheat, juwar and cotton. The climate is warm and the rain- fall is reported to be scanty. The colours of the soil appear to be varying from place to place from light gray to brownish black in some parts.