REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 231 
natural science, an elementary knowledge of which is at least 
as important to the forester or arboriculturist as geology, botany, 
or zoology. Indeed, if one were asked to compare the relative 
value of these four scientific bases of agriculture, horticulture, 
and forestry, chemistry is perhaps the most essentially necessary 
of them all. Perhaps Mr Curtis may therefore include a section 
on chemistry when a second edition of the book appears ; 
and we hope it may not be long before this is required. 
The volume is well illustrated, and forms a welcome addition 
to the growing literature on this subject. Hon. Ep. 
The New Forestry, or the Continental System adapted to British 
Woodlands and Game Preservation. By JOHN SIMPSON. 
Sheffield: Pawson & Brailsford, 1903. Price 15s. net. 
Although the second edition of Zhe New Forestry was published 
in 1903, it has only now been submitted for review. It does not 
contain much new matter. As in the first edition, Brown’s 
system of forestry, as set forth in Zhe Forester, is subjected to 
a great amount of unnecessary adverse criticism, and on this 
Mr Simpson wastes much space which a man of his undoubted 
ability might well have devoted to a fuller exposition of 
the modern and more excellent way. Brown served his 
day and generation, but few would now seriously think of 
following his methods, and his book has been superseded 
by a scientific and practically new work. Mr Simpson also 
attacks Scottish foresters of the past for their ignorance (?) in 
planting Scots pine and spruce when, he asserts, they ought to 
have used hardwoods as a more paying crop, and he singles out 
Sutherlandshire, of all counties, as a case in point. Yet, in his 
chapter on “ Species most Suitable for Planting as Timber-Trees in 
Great Britain and Ireland” (page 94), he-says:—‘‘ Here, then, we 
have three species—Scotch fir, spruce, Weymouth pine, to which 
should be added the larch, making four species which supply by far 
the greater portion of the enormous quantity of timber used in 
this country, which could be grown more quickly and probably as 
successfully and profitably as any other species in almost every part 
of the British Islands.” Nor does he seem quite fair or very 
consistent in some of his remarks on Arboricultural Societies. 
For these and all their doings he professes lofty contempt, yet, 
when it suits his purpose, he does not hesitate to quote with 
