THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 36? 



BOOK NOTICES. 



Farm Weeds of Canada, by George H. Clark, B. S. A., and James 

 Fletcher, LL.D., F. R. S. C . F. L. S., with illustrations by Norman 

 Criddle. Published by direction of the Minister of Agriculture, 

 Ottawa, 1906, 4to, pp. 103. 



It is seldom indeed in this country that so beautiful and useful a book 

 as this is published by a Government Department, and we may therefore 

 all the more heartily congratulate Dr. Fletcher on being enabled to 

 produce this admirable volume. The name of Mr. Clark appears upon 

 the title-page as copied above, but his share in the authorship seems to be 

 limited to a single introductory page. To Dr. Fletcher is evidently due 

 the entire credit for the literary and scientific part of the work, and to 

 Mr. Criddle for the exquisite coloured plates, 52 of weeds and 4 of seeds. 

 At the outset of the volume an account is given of the losses to 

 farmers caused by weeds, and full and clear instructions for their 

 extermination are provided • weeds are defined and classified, and a clear 

 explanation is given of the botanical terms necessarily employed in the 

 work. The rest of the volume is taken up with descriptions of all the 

 important weeds that trouble the farmers, especially in the newer 

 Provinces of the West ; the common English as well as the scientific 

 names are first given in each case, then follow a list of the Provinces it 

 infests, a description of the plant, time of flowering, method of propaga- 

 tion, situations in which it occurs, the injury it causes, and the best 

 remedy to be adopted for its eradication. In the great majority of cases 

 clean farming and a short rotation of crops are the remedies recom- 

 mended, but where carelessness has allowed the land to be seriously 

 infested special methods have to be resorted to. 



With this vv'ork to refer to, no intelligent farmer should have any 

 difficulty in identifying the weeds with which he has to contend, nor 

 should he be at a loss to know in what manner he can successfully wage 

 war upon them. With the plates alone, so beautifully true to nature are 

 they and so artistic as well, any ordinary weed can be identified, and 

 reference may then be made to the description that accompanies them. 



Whether the work is for sale to the public, or is to be obtained only 

 by application to the Ottawa Department of Agriculture, is not stated. 

 No doubt every one who farms many acres will wish for and should have 

 a copy. Weeds allowed to go to seed are not only an injury to the man 

 in whose fields they occur, but are a menace to his neighbours in all 



