LITERARY NOTES 



xix 



Literary 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



Up and Down The Brooks. By Mary E. Bam- 

 ford. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and 

 Company. 

 This book was published twenty-two years 

 ago and the material for it was obtained in 

 California. Nevertheless it is of eastern 

 and present-time interest. The observations 

 are good and the comments regarding the 

 interests of nature are charming and orig- 

 inal. We cordially recommend the book for 

 pleasant reading especially by our young 

 people. 



Tlie Home-Life of The Osprey. By Clinton 

 G. Abbott, B. A. With Thirty-Two 

 Mounted Plates. London: Witherby & 

 Company, 326 High Holborn, W. C. 

 This is a very interesting and well-illus- 

 trated monograph on the osprey. The text 

 is well-written and closely holds the atten- 

 tion. The photographs, by Mr. Howard H. 

 Cleaves, are, many of them, of remarkable 

 excellence, and taking it all from cover to 

 cover it is a most fascinating book not only 

 to the professional ornithologist but to the 

 one who has only an amateur's interest in 

 birds. We cordially recommend it to our 

 readers. It can be obtained post free at 

 Brentano's, 5th Avenue, and 27th Street, New 

 .York City. Price, $2.00. 



Fanners of Forty Centuries. By F. H. King, 

 D. Sc. Madison, Wisconsin: Mrs. F. 

 H. King. 



This quotation from the preface by Dr. L. 

 H. Bailey well expresses the purport and 

 scope of the book: 



"We in North America are wont to think 

 that we may instruct all the world in agri- 

 culture, because our agricultural wealth is 

 great and our exports to less favored peo- 

 ples have been heavy; but this wealth is 

 great because our soil is fertile and new, and 

 in large acreage for every person. We have 

 really only begun to farm well. The first 

 condition of farming is to maintain fertility 

 This condition the oriental peoples have met, 

 and they have solved it in their way. We 

 may never adopt particular methods, but we 

 can profit vastly by their experiences. With 

 the increase of personal wants in recent 

 time, the newer countries may never reach 

 such density of population as have Japan 

 and China; but we must nevertheless learn 

 the first lesson in the conservation of nat- 

 ural resources, which are the resources of 

 the land. This is the message that Profes- 

 sor King brought home from the East." 



Professor King was called suddenly to the 

 endless journey and his travel here was left 

 incomplete. He has bequeathed us a new 

 piece of literature, to add to his standard 

 writings on soils and on the applications of 

 physics and devices to agriculture. 



Life in The Open. By Charles Frederick 

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

 Mr. Holder is a resident of the country of 

 which he writes, and has ridden, driven, 

 sailed, tramped, fished, and shot over every 

 foot of the forest and sea, plain and moun- 

 tain, which he describes so picturesquely and 

 with such keen delight. Mr. Holder has 

 written this book with zest, and the reader 

 finds himself perusing the volume with a 

 corresponding sensation. His book is a 

 chronicle of sporting experiences that car- 

 ries along with it a good deal of exciting 

 narrative and a considerable amount of in- 

 teresting information in regard to social life, 

 as well as the flora and fauna of the country 

 he loves so well. 



Applied Biology. By Maurice A. Bigelow, Ph. 



D. New York City: The Macmillan 



Company. 

 Some of us who delve in biology regret 

 the economical or utilitarian turn that pro- 

 gress in the affairs of nature study is taking, 

 although it may not be well to neglect en- 

 tirely the practical while we consider the 

 theoretical and the inspirational. This book 

 very happily combines these phases. The 

 author is an enthusiastic and thoroughly 

 technical naturalist, as well as a thoroughly 

 trained teacher of biology. He is also a prac- 

 tical business man, with more than the or- 

 dinary amount of good common sense to 

 keep his enthusiasm within effective lines. 

 He has combined these qualifications in the 

 production of a book, "Applied Biology," that 

 not only details practical application of the 

 subject, but enthusiastically tells of the at- 

 tractions of life studies. 



The Land We Live In. By Overton W. Price. 

 With a foreword by Gifford Pinchot. Bos- 

 ton, Massachusetts: Small, Maynard 

 and Company. 

 Here is a book on conservation that is not 

 only instructive and imbued with the right 

 economic spirit, but is also highly enter- 

 taining. The text is well written, and the 

 author has selected just the topics to capture 

 the reader's attention and hold it to the end. 

 The illustrations are striking and have the 

 right human interest, the frontispiece, "The 

 Moose Call," being a fine bit of photographic 

 art. The mechanical part of the book is all 

 that can be desired. The paper is good and 

 the text and illustrations are well printed. 

 We have so long heard conservation exploit- 

 ed from the mercenary and profitable view 

 point, with warnings about our destructive 

 proclivities, that it is indeed refreshing to 

 pick up a book on this subject that is sane 

 and practical and that in addition enter- 

 tains the reader and enlists his sympathy. 



