AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 397 



study of the farmers' difficulties aud needs in each locality, the extension over 

 wider areas of exhibitions, shows, and publications, and the better training of 

 the sons of farmers. 



Statistics of cultivated areas and of crop and live-stock production in the 

 adhering- countries (Statistique cles Superficies Cultw6es, de la Production 

 T6g6tahle et du B^tail dans les Pays AdMrents. Rome, 1910, pp. XX+168). — 

 Data for the countries adhering to the International Institute of Agriculture 

 from the year 1898-99 to 1909 are reported from the official documents of the 

 various governments. 



Agricultural statistics of Ireland, with detailed report for the year 1909, 

 T. P. Gill (Dept. Agr. and Tech. Instr. Ireland. Agr. Statis. 1909, pp. 

 XXXIX+152). — This report, in addition to tables issued by the department 

 during the year showing the acreage under ci-ops, the number of live stock, and 

 the yields of the several crops, includes "(1) particulars of the number and 

 size of agricultural holdings and of their distribution; (2) a comparative record 

 of the changes which have taken place in the several counties during the past 

 ten years as regards the extent and yield of the chief crops and the number of 

 live stock ; (3) statistics of the area of the chief kinds of bush and tree fruits; 

 and (4) statistics of the area under woods and coppice, and of planting and 

 felling operations." The holdings numbered 603,827 as compared with 601,765 

 in 1908 (E. S. R., 22, p. 396). The number of holdings not exceeding one acre 

 was 85,644, the estimated area of which was 39.600 acres. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



Soil fertility laboratory manual, C. G. Hopkins and J. H. Pettit {Boston 

 and London [1910], pp. vi+70, fig. 1). — This manual embodies a course of 27 

 practicums for a course of study in soil fertility, as developed at the College of 

 Agriculture of the University of Illinois. These include the determination of 

 nitrogen in farm produce, soils, animal excrements, and fertilizers, and of phos- 

 phorus in farm produce, soils, and fertilizers, nitrification, the determination 

 of total plant food and of the reaction and acidity of soils, the fixation of bases 

 in soils and of phosphorus by soils, the effect of lime upon nitrification, and 

 the preparation of pot cultures, plant food solutions and standard solutions 

 used in the laboratory exercises. Tables of atomic weights and specific gravity, 

 and a list of necessary apparatus are included. There is also an appendix con- 

 taining several additional practicums for advanced students. 



Domesticated animals and plants, E. Davenport (Boston, New York, Chi- 

 cago, and London, 1910, pp. XIV+321, pi. 1, figs. ^9).— The author states that 

 this book was prepared in response to a demand for a volume running along 

 the same general lines as his Principles of Breeding (E. S. R., 19, p. 773), but 

 somewhat less technical and adapted to the needs of high schools and normal 

 schools. This he has accomplished by devoting less space to the philosophic 

 treatment of variation and heredity, and more to the origin of domesticated 

 races, the sources of materials out of which they have been formed, aud the 

 general subject of natural selection and the survival of the fittest. 



The book is divided into 2 parts. In part 1, which comprises the major part 

 of the text-book, the author discusses the dependence of man upon domesticated 

 animals and plants, the domestication of animals and plants and their need of 

 improvement, the effect of natural selection, unit characters, variability of a 

 single character, how characters are transmitted, abnormal development, and 

 how characters behave in transmission, with several chapters relating to hered- 

 ity and environment and the improvement of plants and animals. Part 2 deals 

 with the origin of domesticated races of animals, grains and grasses, legumes, 

 fruits, vegetables, and miscellaneous plants, and in the opinion of the author 



