411 



NEW BOOKS. 



■\Ve have been asked to express publicly an o])iiii<)ii upon Hie 

 following two books. 



DE SoitxAY, P., Green Manures and Mannrinf/ in the Tropics, 

 — (a translation by F. W. Flattely of M. de Sornay's Les plantes 

 tr(>i)i(ales alinicntaires et industrielles de la faniille des Lej^n- 

 niineuses, Paris. li)18) London, John Bale, Sons ainj Danielsson, 

 Ltd., lS)l(i. V\). xvi + 46r) with copious illustrations. Price K! 

 shillijif>s net with postage abroad one shillino- and sixpence. 



There iss a great difference l)etween the French and Kn^lish, 

 titles, and the Freneh is by far the more expressive of the contents 

 of the book, which is a full account of the tropical Leguminosae 

 whether used for green manuring or for any other purpose, or 

 whether injurious to stock, in fact all that have a direct hearing on 

 man's operations. The translation follows the t^rcnch text closely. 



The book is a work of reference and is excellent. 



MuNRO, R. W. and Brown, L. C. A praciinil giiide lo Coco- 

 nut planting, London, Messrs. John Bale, Sons, and Danielson, 

 Ltd., 1916, pp. XX + 1.S6, with 103 plates. Price 7 shillings and 

 sixpence : postage aI)road ninepence. 



"This book is the outcome of a request made by the 



(iovernment of the Federated Malay States," and it is claimed by 

 the authors as written for the " intending planter " in the Malay 

 Peninsula. It is meant to tell what costs will be entailed and what 

 returns may be got : and with this purpose in view, the advocacy 

 has been placed in very experienced hands. But the book from the 

 point of view of readers is a little difficult to class : as it is neither 

 so detailed in regard to the first processes ol cultivation that the 

 nii\n who has never seen land cleared can take it for a text-book, 

 while it proceeds Ijeyond wliat can be assimilated by him towards 

 the requirements of the made planter without going far enough in 

 describing races of the coconut palm, and its pests, as to be a vade- 

 mecnm on the Plantation. The existence of many races of the 

 Coconut for instance is all but ignored. 



As regards pests, the Red "Weevil assuredly does not live in 

 manure (p. 115), nor in rubbish iieai)S unless dropped into them 

 with infected palm tissue. Brachartona, a moth which attacks the 

 coconut palm leaves badly, is not suppressed in the south of the 

 Peninsula by the ichneumon mentioned in the book, but by the 

 fungus Botrytis necans. The caterpillar described on p. 140 with- 

 out a name might be that of Erionota thrax, bnt uo less that three 

 different orders of Lepidoptera are represented without imforma- 

 tion on the a.ssociated plate. Helminthosi)orium, a fungus men- 

 tioned on p. 139 is not described at all, and the description of the 

 mild attack of Pestalozzia is inadecpiate. 



The agricultural advice which fills most of the book is ex- 

 cellent. The paramount importance of aeration of the soil has its 

 due place: cover crops, as distinct from catch crops, are recom- 

 mended, in such a way that- the made planter may learn. The 

 wealth of illustrations is excellent. 



