APPENDIX I. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Agriculture, Practical and Scientific. By James Muir, M.R.A.C. , Professor of Agriculture 

 in the Yorkshire College, Leeds. London : Macmillan & Co., 1895. 



Anything which will give the farmer a better chance of making agriculture profitable will 

 always receive a warm welcome in England, and certainly one of the most promising signs of 

 the times is the increasing tendency to study the scientific principles underlying the ordinary 

 operations of the farm. 



Unfortunately a considerable period must elapse before such study becomes general, for 

 the average farmer, besides having little time to devote to reading scientific books, as a rule 

 possesses so little knowledge of the elementary principles involved that he would find it difficult 

 to make much progress unless he were fortunate enough to be able to obtain help from some 

 one more familiar with scientific subjects. 



In the future, when, it may be hoped, scientific and technical education will be more 

 general, students of agriculture will undoubtedly be in a better position to make the best of 

 things and will be able to call to their aid processes of which their predecessors of to-day know 

 nothing. 



It is to the younger generation of agriculturists that we must look for progress, and it is 

 to these that Professor Muir's book will be especially useful, for to anybody armed with a slight 

 but accurate knowledge of science, the clear and methodical treatment of the various heads of 

 the subject must be of immense help. The first chapters are devoted to a consideration of the 

 plant, the soil and its formation and the classification of soils, the plant food in the soil, and 

 the soil's losses and gains. Then follows a chapter on the British geological formations and 

 their agricultural characteristics, and next is treated the subject of improvement of the soil by 

 drainage, irrigation, mixing soils, and liming. Manuring is treated in five chapters. ■ One 

 chapter is devoted to implements and machinery, and the next ten or twelve chapters are 

 devoted to the subject of crops and cropping, most of the crops being treated at some length, 

 and information given as to the varieties usually grown. Directions are also given for the 

 preparation of the seed-bed most suitable for each plant, and the treatment necessary to bring 

 the crop to perfection is described at some length. Finally some pages are devoted to the 

 diseases and insect pests attacking crops, and the best means of dealing with these. 



Altogether the descriptions are full and lucid and much valuable information is to be 

 gained by a study of the book. The illustrations and general get-up are e-vcellent. 



Lessons in Elementary Physics. By Balfour Stewart, M.A. , LL.D., F. R.S. New and 

 enlarged edition. London: Macmillan & Co., 1895. 



The appearance of the present (the fourth,) edition of this familiar and ever useful text-book 

 makes one glance back at the period which has elapsed since its first appearance in 1870. 

 Some idea of the favour with which it was received may be gathered from the fact that the first 

 edition was reprinted in 1871, 1873, l8 74- l8 75. and 1877. The second edition appeared in 

 1878, and was reprinted 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, January and November, 1884, 1885, 

 1886, 1887, and January, 1888. The third edition appeared in June, 1888, and was reprinted 

 in 1891, and the fourth and present edition has just been published. Successive editions have 

 in turn been improved and enlarged, and at present the book is one which students would be 

 sorry to be without. All beginners in Physics should be grateful to Mr. W. W. Haldane Gee 

 for the trouble he has taken in bringing the present edition up to date. 



The Natural History of Aquatic Insects. By Professor L. C. Miall, F.R.S. London : 



Macmillan & Co., 1895. 



One of the greatest evils of modern specialism in science is the increasing disinclination 

 on the part of animal morphologists and botanists to study the forms with which they are 

 concerned in the living state and in the open air. Perhaps the argument made use of is that 

 the functions of the organisms, and their manner of life, concern more the physiologist than 



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