DIFFICULT circumstances in the agricultural industries of Australia are giving rise to much-needed co-operation between Commonwealth and States. In December last a conference of ministers at Canberra determined to establish an Australian Agricultural Council, to provide for continuous consultation among the Governments on economic aspects of agriculture, the members to be the Federal Minister for Commerce, the Minister-in-Charge of Development and Scientific Research and the State ministers concerned. This body will be supported by a permanent technical committee which is identical in personnel with the former Standing Committee on Agriculture of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, but which will now have greatly increased responsibilities. Its members are the six permanent heads of the State Departments of Agriculture, the three executive members of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the Secretary of the Department of Commerce and the Director-General of Health. Besides its duties on the side of agricultural economics, this committee is charged with (i) securing co-operation and co-ordination in agricultural research throughout the Commonwealth; (ii) advising Commonwealth and State Governments, directly or through the new Council, on matters pertaining to the initiation and development of research on agricultural problems; and (iii) securing co-operation between Commonwealth and States, and between the States themselves in all quarantine measures relating to pests and diseases of plants and animals, and advising Governments thereon.