XX 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE.— LITERARY NOTICES. 



IlTERARY 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



The simplest and the purest joys, 



The ones that never pall, 

 Are always waiting near at hand, 



And we may grasp them all. 



The joys of home and out-of-doors 



Can aught else equal these? 

 They grow with growth, expand with time, 



The same o'er land and seas. 



— Emma Peirce. 



Grammar of The English Sentence. By Jona- 

 than Rigdon, Ph.D., New York: Hinds, 

 Noble & Eldredge. 



This book was brought to my attention by 

 an expert grammarian who stated that to him 

 it had been more useful than any other work 

 of the kind in giving the details of the Eng- 

 lish sentence. I find that it is well arranged, 

 attractive, and that it enteres so efficiently into 

 details as to make it a really valuable text- 

 book. Those of our readers that are inter- 

 ested in the subject will find in this book much 

 interesting and important material. 



The Bird Hospital. By Caroline Crownin- 

 shield Bascom. Boston : H. M. Caldwell 

 Company. 



This book details, in a simple and pleasing 

 manner, the author's experience in caring for 

 accidentally injured birds that children and 

 other persons have brought to her. bome 

 were so wounded and broken that they were 

 unable to fly or to care for themselves. The 

 affection manifested by the birds so treated 

 and helped was astonishing, and shows the 

 result of kindness and gentle consideration in 

 those creatures that are usually considered so 

 far beneath us in intelligence. 



The Natural History of the Farm. By 



James G. Needham. Ithaca, New York: 



The Comstock Publishing Company. 



All agriculture is nature study, but not all 

 nature study is agriculture. Out of the great, 

 comprehensive, universal field of nature study 

 the author of this book has taken those things 

 which apply directly to agriculture, but it is 

 none the less nature study. He says: 



"These are the things we have to live with : 

 they are the things we have to live by. They 

 feed us and shelter us and clothe us and 

 warm us. They equip us with implements 

 for manifold tasks. They endow us with a 

 thousand delicacies and wholesome comforts. 

 They unfold before us the ceaseless drama 

 of the everchanging seasons — the informing 

 drama of life, of which we are a part. And 

 when, in our rude farming operations, we scar 

 the face of nature to make fields and houses 

 and stock pens, they offer us the means 

 whereby, though changed, to make it green 

 and golden again — a fit environment wherein 

 to dwell at peace." 



The Story of a Thousand-Year Pine. By 



Enos A. Mills. Boston : Houghton Mifflin 



Company. 



This is a little de luxe book of pleasant 

 statements in regard to the author's investi- 

 gation of an old pine tree. It sets the reader 

 to thinking of the many changes that the hu- 

 man race has experienced during the life of a 

 single tree. 



How to Keep Bees for Profit. By D. Everett 



Lyon, Ph. D. New York: The Macmillan 



Company. 



Dr. Lyon is an enthusiastic bee-keeper. He 

 has written a good handbook in which he de- 

 scribes the care of bees. It is thoroughly 

 up-to-date and does not detail old-time meth- 

 ods but tells what one wishes to know in the 

 year 1914. From our point of view the 

 book lays too much stress upon pecuniary 

 profit, but we recognize that in this intensely 

 utilitarian age bees and most other things in 

 nature are to many people worthless and use- 

 less, unless they keep the pocketbook filled. 

 We have always contended that bees are worth 

 while in themselves, worth caring for as 

 one might care for butterflies, earthworms 

 or any other object of nature. The in- 

 trinsic interest is the best profit. However, 

 in Dr. Lyon's book one can find plenty of ma- 

 terial that does not savor of the almighty dol- 

 lar. Even to the enthusiastic scientist or hob- 

 biest the dollar is not objectionable because it 

 helps to carry the studies forward to a more 

 successful issue. 



The Essence of Astronomy. By Edward W. 



Price. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



It is encouraging to meet with such a book 

 as this. It is not a text-book for the high 

 school, but a popular handbook for the. gen- 

 eral reader. One begins to think at times, as 

 he notes the new books on astronomy, that 

 except among professional astronomers, the 

 only use ever made of this grandest of 

 sciences is to teach it in the high school. It 

 is good for the high school, and equally good 

 for men and women everywhere. This book 

 is true to its name. It contains the astronomi- 

 cal facts of essential interest expressed in a 

 readable manner. In addition it contains an 

 interesting and useful chronology such as I 

 do not remember to have seen in any other 

 book. Here is given a bird's-eye view of the 

 science, beginning "previous to the fifth cen- 

 tury" and ending in 1908 with the discovery 

 of Eros, our nearest planetoid. For develop- 

 ments in astronomy since 1908, the author 

 might well have suggested that the reader 

 should look to the astronomical department of 

 The Guide to Nature which gives every 

 month the essentials of the astronomy of the 

 season. 



