SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



185 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



THE AGRICULTURAL YEARBOOK. 

 The Yearbook of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture has taken 

 rank as one of the important annuals of 

 this country, and in point of circulation 

 is hardly equaled. This is due to the 

 munificence of the Federal Government 

 iti appropriating $300,000 annually for 

 its publication, in an edition of half 

 a million copies, and to the care which 

 is given by the Department of Agri- 

 culture to the preparation of timely 

 and interesting articles and appropriate 

 illustrations. The Yearbook takes the 

 place of the annual report of the Secre- 

 tary, which was naturally a more 

 formal document and less likely to at- 

 tract the average reader's attention. 

 In its present form it presents an at- 

 tractive appearance, and its many illus- 

 trations and long list of short articles 

 on a variety of subjects invite atten- 

 tion. The volume for 1900 comprises 

 nearly nine hundred pages, and is illus- 

 trated by eighty-seven plates, nine of 

 them colored, and eighty-eight text fig- 

 ures. In addition to the executive re- 

 ports, which occupy less than eighty 

 pages, it contains thirty-one articles on 

 various phases of the Department's 

 work or other subjects of direct inter- 

 est to agriculture. Only a part of 

 these can be mentioned, but enough to 

 indicate the range of subjects and that 

 the volume is not alone of interest and 

 value to the farmers of the country. 

 In an article on Smyrna fig culture in 

 the United States, Dr. Howard de- 

 scribes the successful introduction by 

 the Department of the Blastophaga, the 

 insect which fertilizes the fig and has 

 enabled the production of Smyrna figs 

 of good quality in this country; and 

 one on the date palm tells what has 

 been done for the promotion of that in- 

 dustry by the introduction of the best 



I varieties into Arizona, where it flour- 

 ishes even in soils heavily impregnated 

 with alkali. Wheat growing in the 

 semi-arid districts has been rendered 

 less uncertain, it is thought, by the 

 introduction of macaroni and several 

 other varieties of wheat, which have 

 already given promise. Articles on the 

 food of nestling birds and how birds 

 aff"eet the orchard illustrate the prac- 

 tical bearings of a phase of work which 

 is concerned with the food habits of 

 birds under different conditions, to 

 ascertain what kinds are beneficial and 

 V/'hat injurious to the farmer and fruit 

 grower; while one on tjve food value of 

 the potato gives some practical results 

 of the work of the Department in 

 another direction. There are two arti- 

 cles on practical forestry and forest 

 extension, several on injurious insects 

 and their repression, a helpful one on 

 practical irrigation, two on road build- 

 ing, in which subject the Department 

 is taking an active interest, and two 

 on meteorology. One of the latter, on 

 hot waves, the conditions which pro- 

 duce them and their eff"ects on agricul- 

 ture, is of special interest even though 

 it does not suggest any relief. The free 

 rural delivery of mails, although in no 

 way connected with the Department of 

 Agriculture, comes so close to its far- 

 mer constituents that an account of the 

 working of that system does not seem 

 out of place in its Yearbook. The four 

 thousand routes now in operation pro- 

 vide for the daily delivery of mail at 

 the scattered homes of about three and 

 a half million of rural population. The 

 work done in a long life devoted to 

 agriculture, horticulture and kindred 

 subjects by the late William Saunders, 

 who had been connected with the De- 

 partment since its establishment in 

 1SG2, is the subject of a short sketch, 



