ALLOCUTION DE BIENVENUE

The organisers thought that it was advisable to combine the meetings of the two committees (" Protected Cultivation" and "Horticultural Engineering") in the sphere of growing under plastics. The "crops under plastics" and "plastics on crops" aspects will therefore be considered together. In fact it is not easy to consider them separately.

The present conference is in no way designed to compete with the activities of the International Committee of Plastics in Agriculture, whose Secretary General, Mr. Buclon, we are happy to have as one of our speakers, nor those of the Italian Committee on plastics in agriculture - whose Secretary General, Professor Bonfiglioli, has kindly agreed to present a report, for which we are grateful to him, nor those of any national or international organisations.

We merely hope that in scientific discussions conducted within a small Committee meeting around a table, without regard for commercial or other contingencies, specialists from the largest possible number of countries can compare their ideas, and help to make known to the leaders of the new countries, within their sphere of influence, the real Scope for new materials and the field of crop protection

As Mr. Nisen will be telling you later, plastics have made cultivation with protection available to all : protected crops are no longer, then, the prerogative of highly- developed countries; horticulture in the new countries can derive

In accordance with a process nown becoming habitual, our work will consists of dicsussions between a relatively small number of specialists(about sixty, we have decided) with discussions following the presentation of brief original reports.

So as to ensure that the conference proceeds in a smooth and orderly manner, we hope that the session chairen will observe strictly the timing agreed on : 20 minutes per report. We hope that the speakers will make a point of complying with this arrangement, which will make a considerable contribution to ensuring the proper running of the conference. We would also ask the session chairmen to point out to the speakers when they only five minutes left in which to speak.

Discussions will be postposed to the end of the morning or the afternoon; they will follow the account of various topics and will make it possible to save time, to spread the various problems out better, and to avoid repetition. It will be possible to devote one hour to discussions, after which the chairman will sum up.

The problem of languages is particularly challenging. The International Society for Horticultural Science has two official languages, French and English. It is therefore only possible to use these two languages.

Out of deference to our Italian hosts, however, we are quite ready for some questions to be asked in Italian : we have in fact tried to arrange for the summaries of the reports to be presented not only in one or more languages of the ISHS, but also in Italian, but have unfortunately not been successful.

A number of persons who were to have attented their apologies for absence. We cannot mention them all, but will merely mention the following ISHS officers :

• Dr. Fritz, Weihenstephan, chairman of the Crops Section of the ISHS.
• Dr. Morris, chairman, and Dr. van den Muijzenberg, secretary, of the Horticultural Engineering Committee.
• Professor Penningsfeld.

We hope that all participants will take an active part in the dicussions, and wish the conference every success.