Io8 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Book of the English Oak. By Charles Hurst. i88 pp., 

 with a map of English Oaks and 14 Illustrations from 

 Photographs. Price 5s. net. Lynwood & Co., Ltd., London. 



This book is written by an enthusiastic admirer of the 

 English oak and of English scenery, and while it is not a book on 

 forestry, it gives a great deal of information about the oak and 

 many other things noted during a prolonged ramble on foot 

 through the English midlands, which the author discourses 

 on in a delightful manner. It is a book which all lovers of trees 

 and country life should read. 



Forestry for Woodmen. By C. O. Hanson. 222. pp. 12 Plates 

 and 15 Figures. Price 5s. Oxford Clarendon Press, 191 1. 



Mr C. O. Hanson's little book, entitled Forestry for Woodmen, 

 is, as the preface states, based on Schlich's Manual of Forestry. 

 " It has been written," says the author, " to supply a cheap book 

 on scientific forestry for foresters and woodmen, few of whom can 

 afford the more expensive works." In how far it is possible to 

 realise these expectations within the compass of a little over 200 

 pages must be left to individual opinion to decide. Also in our 

 experience it is not so much the difficulty of procuring the more 

 expensive works as the difficulty of understanding them when 

 obtained that has handicapped the class for which Mr Hanson 

 writes his book. As in every other profession, the higher ranks 

 of foresters will be recruited from men of a good, sound general 

 education, and only students possessed of such can assimilate 

 the more highly scientific and technical portions of a forester's 

 education. Mr Hanson's aim is a definite and good one, but it 

 is open to considerable doubt how much of his book will be 

 absorbed with profit by the working woodman. It presupposes 

 a far better education than he is likely to possess ; but for the 

 more educated forester in charge of woods the book will prove 

 of interest and use. 



The author opens with a description of the life-history of a 

 tree, dealing with its nutriment, botanical aspects, reproductive 

 power, etc. He then considers tree-growth in relation to climate, 

 following the lines of Schlich's Manual. Chapter III. discusses 

 pure and mixed woods, the methods of planting such, the 



