So 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



Mitchell — As the result of a visit to this town 

 by our organizer, Mr. Thos. Beall, of Lindsay, 

 during the fall, a meeting was held in the town 

 hall on the loth inst. for the organization of a 

 horticultural society. A society was duly formed 

 with a membership of fifty-seven to start with. 

 Following are the names of the officers elected : 



A. D. Smith, M.D., president; W. Elliot, B.A., 

 first vice-president; Mrs. W. Thomson, second 

 vice-president, and T. H. Race, secretary-treas- 

 urer. The society is arranging for a public 

 lecture sometime early in February. 



Leamington. — The Horticultural Society's an- 

 nual meeting took the form this year of a concert 

 in the town hall last night. The president. Mr. 

 Fraser, ably presided and before eight o'clock, the 

 hour set, the large opera house was crowded to 

 the doors by the most intelligent of our town's 

 people. 



Music was a leading featnre of the entertain- 

 ment and local talent was reinforced by Miss 

 Huff, of Dresden, who kindly assisted. She has 

 a very sweet and powerful soprano voice. She 

 sang " Life's Dream is O'er," in duet with Miss 

 Nuller, taking soprano ; Miss Fuller alto. She 



sang also two fine selections, and another in 

 response to a hearty encore. 



Our local prima donnas, Mrs. Manning and Miss 

 Fuller sang beautifully. Mrs. Manning gave the 

 appropriate piece, " Beautiful Flowers," and Miss 

 Fuller rendered in her usual happy manner "The 

 Highland Brigade." Mr. Edelsten, to whose 

 push and enthusiasm the success of the function 

 is largely due, sang with spirit the patriotic song, 

 " Our Flag." Rev. Mr. Keith gave a fine read- 

 ing. The orchestra, led by Mr. Maxon, ably 

 accompanied by Mrs. Deming, Mr. Thorn and 

 Mr. Ivan Russell, was of great assistance. 



Miss Hanna Fuller and Miss GrBce Smith also 

 ably assi.sted in the accompaniments. 



There were speeches more or less racy and rel- 

 evant from Mayor Hughes, Messrs. Fuller, John- 

 son Hillborn McSween, Dr. Eede, Mr. Straubel, 

 Mr. McKay and Mr. Lewis Wigle. 



During the meeting over fifty members were 

 enrolled, and at an after meeting the officers for 

 1900 were chosen : Hon. Pres., Dr. Hughes, 

 mayor of Leamington ; J. D. Fraser, pres.; J. L. 

 Hillborn, ist vice-pres. ; E. E. Adams, 2nd vice- 

 pres.; E. J. M. Edelsten, secretary. 



Besides these there were nine directors and two 

 auditors elected. 



^m i®®Ik 1A\%. 



Irrigation and Drainage. — F. H. King, Pro- 

 fessor of Agricultural Physics in the University of 

 Wisconsin. 500 pp. Published by the Macmillan 

 Co., New York. Price, $1.50. 



We have many books on fertilizing the soil, and 

 a few books on applying water to the soil artifici- 

 ally, but these latter treat the subject from an 

 engineering standpoint rather than the agricul- 

 tural point of view. It is therefore opportune that 

 a book of this character should be given the public 

 by a writer who has made soil physics a life study. 

 As the author pointedly states: " Most works on 

 irrigation have been written from the legal or 

 sociological standpoint or from that of the en- 

 gineer rather than from the cultural phases of the 

 subject. The effort is made here to present in a 

 broad yet specific way the fundamental principles 

 which underlie the methods of culture by irriga- 

 tion and drainage. The aim has been to deal 

 with those relations of water to soils and to plants 

 which must be grasped in order to permit a rat- 

 ional practice of applying, remov'ng or conserving 

 soil moisture in crop production." The author 

 opens with a discussion of the principles underly- 

 ing the watering of land, which is irrigation, and 

 the withdrawal of water from the land, which is 

 drainage. These are two opposite methods of 

 land culture, both essential, but of special utility, 

 depending upon locality and rainfall. One of the 

 valuable things strongly emphasized in this book 

 is the necessity of securing a desirable physical 

 condition of the soil in order to obtain the largest 

 return from the land. The author has shown that 

 good culture, which means good physical condi- 

 tion, may in large measure replace commercial 

 fertilizers. In other words a good physical con- 



dition of the soil is often mistaken for a "worn 

 out " condition. The plant can only get hold of 

 the plant food when the soil is in such condition 

 as to hold a certain amount of moisture, air and 

 humus. Whfen these three agents are present 

 the processes which attend the liberation of plant 

 food are allowed to progress normally. He makes 

 clear the fact that many so-called worn out .soils 

 are in reality poorly tilled soils. If no other 

 point than this was brought out the book would 

 have accomplished a worthj'^ mission. In this 

 way it is of special value to the eastern farmer. 

 To the western farmer it is useful from the irriga- 

 tion standpoint. It is well known that among 

 the most productive lands on the continent are 

 those lying in the arid or semi-arid regions of the 

 west. The questions of how to conduct the 

 water to the desired place and how to distribute 

 it are of great importance. Bound up with these 

 are those of economy as related to water supply 

 and as bearing upon cost of application of water. 

 The book, then, is divided into two parts : first, 

 irrigation ; second, drainage. In this way the 

 principles enunciated have a wide range of appli- 

 cation. It fills a distinct place among farm books 

 and will undoubtedly be used freely in the college 

 as well as the private library. 



This volume makes an important addition to 

 the Rural Science Series being edited by Profes- 

 sor Bailey. It is illustrated with a large number 

 of half tone pictures and a smaller number of line 

 drawings. While the mechanical make up is not 

 quite equal to the preceding numbers of the series, 

 it bears the unmistakable stamp of the Macmil- 

 lans, which is usually a synonym of good book 

 making. J. C. 



