BOOK REVIEWS 251 



touch with interesting material. If the book were used pretty 

 largely, as a reader, and in the hands of a teacher who could supple- 

 ment it by a good deal of outside work, it would serve as a basis for 

 some interesting school exercises in agriculture. Without such 

 supplementary work it would not seem to be as stimulating a book 

 as some of the other agricultural texts. 



Elementary Agriculture, by William L. Nida, pp. vi+ 238-CLXIX ; 

 A. Flanagan & Co. Price $1.00. 



Students' Edition of the same; 228 pp. Price $.60. 



The two books are alike except that the second part of the 

 teachers' edition contains 147 pages of questions and answers. 

 The book opens with a series of chapters on the animals found on 

 and about the farm. Part II deals with soil, its tillage, and the 

 various farm crops. There are some suggestive chapters also on 

 the farm garden, country roads, and farm sanitation. This is 

 another one of the numerous books on elementary agriculture that 

 continue to appear. It is simply written, well illustrated, but 

 has nothing especially to mark it as an advance over the others 

 that have already been published. Perhaps the thousand ques- 

 tions on agriculture and answers that are given may be of help to 

 the teacher who lacks initiative, but it hardly seems worthwhile 

 loading a book with such a catechism; the student's edition seems 

 quite as serviceable as the teacher's edition. 



Manual of Experimental Botany, by Frank O. Payne; pp. 272; 

 The American Book Co. Price $.75. 



If this were designated "A Laboratory Manual in Botany" the 

 title would more clearly indicate the content. It is true that the 

 approach of the book is through a study of the activity of plants, 

 yet as one runs through the pages there are recognized many of the 

 experiments that have been commonplace in botan}^ texts for 

 years. And a large part of the book is given over to morphological 

 studies. It is to be recommended, however, as a very good guide 

 for laboratory work in botany. And any student who docs the 

 work suggested will have a very fair idea of the activity of jjlants, 

 and the physiological processes that underlie intelligent agricul- 

 tural procedure. 



