BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



A Text-Book of Grasses. — A recent publication of note is A Text- 

 Book of Grasses, by Prof. A. S. Hitchcock of the Department of Agri- 

 culture, Washington, D. C. 1 This is one of the Rural Science Series 

 edited by L. H. Bailey, and is certain to prove valuable not only for the 

 general readers but also for the student of grasses. It contains many 

 illustrations which make it of special value to the layman who wants 

 to know about the common grasses and forage plants. 



The book is divided into two parts, Economic Agrostology with 88 

 pages divided into 10 chapters, and Systematic Agrostology with 167 

 pages and 15 chapters. Under Economic Agrostology such subjects 

 as forage plants, cultivated pastures, meadow plants, lawns, grasses 

 as weeds, grasses for miscellaneous purposes and grass crop areas are 

 discussed. The treatment of most of these subjects is too brief to be 

 of great value even to the ordinary reader. The subject of grazing 

 ranges and range grasses is manifestly not as good as it should be. 

 The real factor in building up grazed-out ranges in the west is to insure 

 seed production by means of alternate grazing and resting of the areas 

 concerned. This part of the book contains some very suggestive 

 charts on forage production in the United States, including timothy, 

 clover, alfalfa, millet, and pi'airie grass. With all regard to Professor 

 Hitchcock's wide knowledge of grasses, the writer cannot agree fullv 

 with the statement that blue grama grass is a short grass and is fre- 

 quently confused with buffalo grass. 



The second part of the book is very much stronger than the first 

 part, in fact, parts of it are rather technical for the average person. 

 A study of it gives one a general idea of our commoner and more val- 

 uable grasses. It is not complete enough, however, for the student 

 of grasses to gain a scientific knowledge of the subject. Considerable 

 space is taken up with technical information necessary to the study of 

 grasses. This might well be gained by the college student in one semes- 

 ter's work in general taxonomy, while for the layman who has no knowl- 

 edge of botany much of this information will be of little value. The 

 writer regrets to say that the citation of reference works in the first part 

 of the book is limited to Washington publications. Some of our best 



Hitchcock, A. S.. A Text-Book of Grasses. Pp. 276, figs. 63. New York, 

 The Macmillan Company, 1914 ($1.50). 



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