890 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.41 



The work of the agricultural wages board in 1918, A. W. Ashby {Jour. Roy. 

 Agr. Soc. Englnncl, 79 (1918), pp. 138-156).— In these pages the work of the 

 District Wages Committees and orders issued by the Agricultural Wages 

 Board in England and Wales in 1918 are reported. In an appendix the min- 

 imum rates of wages in force March 1, 1918, are tabulated by counties, ages 

 of workers, etc. 



American negro slavery, U. B. Phillips (New York and London: D. Apple- 

 ton d Co., 1918, pp. XI-\-529, pi. 1). — This is a survey of tlie supply, employ- 

 ment, and control of negro labor as determined by the plantation regime, 

 taken from historical and diocumentary sources, and fi'om contemporary 

 records of slaves, masters, and witnesses. The chapters included are the dis- 

 covery and exploitation of Guinea, the maritime slave trade, the sugar islands, 

 the tobacco colonies, the rice coast, the northern colonies, revolution and re- 

 action, the closing of the African slave trade, the introduction of cotiou and 

 sugar, the westward movement, the domestic slave trade, tlie cotton ivgime, 

 types of large plantations, plantation management, plantation labor, plantation 

 life, plantation tendencies, economic views of slavery — a survey of the literature, 

 business aspects of slavery, town slaves, free negroes, slave crime, and the force 

 of the law. 



Child-caring work in rural communities, H. I. Curry (T. 8. Dept. Labor, 

 Children's Bur. Pub. 60 (1919), pp. 363-367).— In this address before the Chil- 

 dren's Bureau Conferences in May and June, 1919, it is stated that the county 

 is probably the best administrative unit for rural organization, but that a State- 

 wide agency .should be established for the placing out of children and possibly 

 for other specialized work. The needs of rural communities for nursing and 

 social service are discussed. 



Rural population, E. A. Goldenweisek (U. S. Dept. Agr., Atlas A)n<;r. Agr., 

 Jit. 9, Sect. 1 (1919), pp. 19, figs. 38). — This publication consists of graphs and 

 maps of the United States with explanatory notes showing the geographic dis- 

 tribution and relative importance of urban and village population, the native 

 white, foreign white, and negro stock of rural population, the pi-oportion not 

 attending school, illiteracy in the rural population, country of origin of foreign 

 population, the rural population unable to speak English, and the increases 

 and decreases in country population. This study also shows by State and 

 county the country population in 1910 and 1900. The whole is based upon cen- 

 sus figures for 1910. A list of selected references on rural population is given. 



On absenteeism, G. F. de la Rosa (Bol. Agr. Tec. y Econ., 10 (1918), Nos. 

 118, pp. 870-878; 119, pp. 939-947; 120, pp. 1068-1078).— A discussion of the de- 

 velopment and evils of, and the means of discouraging, absentee landlordism 

 and the depopulation of rural districts of Spain. 



A survey of the development of the Serbian (Southern Slav) Nation, G. 

 DiouEiTCH (Jour. Roy. Statis. Soc, 82 (1919), No. 3, pp. 293-3Jf2) .-There is 

 here published an address delivered before the Royal Statistical Society, on 

 March 18, 1919, which is an economic and statistical study of the population ; 

 the land under cultivation ; the foreign trade, particularly in foodstuffs ; the 

 mineral wealth ; means of communication ; and currency, banking, revenue, 

 and public expenditure of Serbia, Serbian territories liberated in 1912, and 

 Southern Slav peoples under the domination of Austria-Hungary. 



It is shown that, in 190.5, 87.37 per cent of the population of Serbia were 

 agriculturalists; that 91.59 per cent of the 401,093 families in 1900 were pro- 

 prietors ; and that the area cultivated, especially plowed land, had increased 

 considerably to the detriment of commons, grasslands, and forests. It is 

 stated that the occupation of the people is even more exclusively agricultural 



