794 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECOKD. [Vol. 35 



tion, terms of employment, wage systems, grants of land to agi'icultural labor- 

 ers, and labor conditions on certain typical holdings. Information is also given 

 concerning the duration of work and the kind and rate of wages for the different 

 classes of agricultural workers. 



Farmers' cooperative electricity societies, C. L. Stewabt (Wis. Country 

 Mag., 10 {1916), No. 9, pp. 434, 435, ^68).— The author states that the con- 

 clusion reached by cooperative leaders is that electricity societies should seldom 

 build their own overland central stations, but that they should by all means be 

 assured of sufficient custom. The average membership in societies owning their 

 power works is between 300 and 400, and it is best for the membership to go 

 into four figures if small farmers predominate. 



Proceedings of the Seventh Provincial Conference of Cooperative Societies 

 in Bengal (Proc. Prov. Conf. Coop. Socs. Bengal, 7 (1915), pp. II-\-14-{- 

 XX XV III, pi. 1). — ^Among the topics discussed at this conference, held at 

 Calcutta in February, 1915, were those relating to the different phases of rural 

 credit, cattle insurance, and cooperative dairying. 



The rural home and the farm woman, D. B. Johnson (School and Soc, 

 4 (1916), No. 80, pp. 39-42). — The author states that "it is not sufficient to 

 give the farm woman all of the conveniences of a model home. Country life 

 must be made socially satisfying. In order for country life to be financially 

 and socially satisfying the people must have education and own their homes, 

 must cooperate with each other in rural community activities, and must have 

 rural community organization for the promotion and support of an educational, 

 religious, social, business, and intellectual community life." 



Staircase farms of the ancients, O. F. Cook (Nat. Georgr. Mag., 29 (1916), 

 No. 5, pp. 474-534, figs. 4S). — In this article are described the type of agri- 

 culture, principal crops grown, and methods of managing the land practiced by 

 the early inhabitants of Peru, as disclosed by a study of the remains of 

 their hanging gardens and other prehistoric evidences. 



Egypt of the Egyptians, W. L. Balls (New York: Charles Schribner's Sons, 

 1916, pp. xyi+266, pis. 33, figs. 2).— Tlie author describes the methods of con- 

 trolling the water of the Nile for irrigation purposes and its influence upon the 

 agriculture of the country, the methods of growing crops, and the types of 

 agricultural people. 



Greater agricultural efficiency for the Black Belt of Alabama, C. E. Allen 

 (Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. and Soc. Sol, 61 (1915), No. 150, pp. 187-198, figs. 1).— 

 The author compares the agricultural conditions in the Black Belt with the 

 regions immediately adjacent where the whites are in the majority. 



He points out that the Black Belt contains a soil more fertile and more 

 adapted to the cultivation of staple crops, yet the average production of cotton 

 per acre was 0.27 bale and 10.4 bu. corn in the Black Belt as compared with 

 0.34 bale and 11.4 bu., respectively, for the adjacent areas. In the " white " 

 area the value of improvements is increasing more rapidly, more land is being 

 brought into cultivation, and the rural population is increasing, while in the 

 Black Belt there is a decrease in the area of cultivated land and in the rural 

 population. 



The author believes that the problem resolves itself into one of improving 

 rural conditions of living .so that rural life will become attractive by the 

 establishment of improved highways, cooperative agencies, and better educa- 

 tional facilities, to be followed by efforts to teach the negroes scientific 

 agriculture. 



Farm management or what can be done on a fifty acre farm in east Texas, 

 J. O. Allen (Texas Dept. Agr. Bui., n. ser., No. 20, pp. 13). — According to the 

 author's plan, the 50 acres are to be distributed as follows : Ten acres in corn 



