RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



Elementary Wood Working. By EDWIN W. 

 FOSTER. Pp. 133. Illustrated. Ginn & 

 Co., Boston. 



This little volume has for its purpose the fur- 

 nishing to high-school and other stude'nts the 

 essential facts about tools and their uses. It 

 not only describes, but illustrates, the various 

 tools used in wood working ; and there are 

 chapters on lumbering and milling. The prin- 

 cipal timber trees are also described. Alto- 

 gether the volume contains much information 

 of a practical nature that should be useful to 

 the average person. 



Our Mountain Garden. By Mrs. THEODORE 

 THOMAS. Pp. 212. Illustrated. Macmil- 

 lan Company, New York. $1.50 net. 



Mrs. Thomas' experience in producing her 

 mountain garden, which included the building 

 of a summer home, will delight and be profit- 

 able to both those who are amateur gardeners 

 or who contemplate becoming such. The de- 

 sire to build a home and beautify its surround- 

 ings has ever been strong in the average breast, 

 and never more so than in recent years. The 

 desire to " personally conduct " the operations 

 seems to be the rage, and a right healthy sign 

 it is. The whole work in connection with Mrs. 

 Thomas' house and garden was superintended 

 by and much of the labor done by herself. It is 

 for this reason that her narrative is so interest- 

 ing and full of practical hints. The book is 

 delightfully written also and in many ways it 

 suggests Arthur Henry's admirable volume, 

 'The House in the Woods," with which it 

 does not suffer in comparison. 



Getting Acquainted with the Trees. By J. HOR- 

 ACEMcFARLAND. Pp.24i. Over'ioo illus- 

 trations. Macmillan Company, New York. 

 This volume contains eight chapters in pop- 

 ular vein on some of our best-known trees. 

 Mr. McFarland's connection with the book as 

 author, illustrator, and printer is sufficient 

 guarantee as to its artistic side. It is undoubt- 

 edly one of the handsomest nature books we 

 have seen, and as a guide to certain classes of 

 our trees will be of much value to amateur 

 dendrologists. The illustrations, numbering 

 more than one hundred half-tones from photo- 

 graphs, are striking examples of the engraver's 

 and printer's skill. 



Weather Folk-Lore and Local Weather Signs. 



Bulletin No. 33, U. S. Weather Bureau. 

 By Professor EDWARD GARRIOTT. Pp. 

 174. Illustrated with maps. Government 

 Printing Office. Price, 35 cents. 



This is an interesting as well as a valuable 

 publication, the first part classifying all the 

 ' ' sayings "and legends of the weather in so far 

 as they hold true, and the second containing 

 summaries of local weather signs at Weather 1 

 Bureau stations throughout the United States 

 as indicated by the reports of the Bureau's ob- 

 servers. The mass of weather folk-lore has 

 been threshed out until only those legends or 

 sayings which have been found true in practi- 



cal application, in whole or in part, remain. 

 These are further classified with explanations 

 and notes, under the heads of Wind, Clouds, 

 Barometer, Temperature, Humidity, Animals, 

 Birds, Fish, Insects, Plants, Sun, Moon, Stars, 

 Sun-spots, Days, Months, and Years, etc. 

 Sayings, legends, tales, and folk-lore concern- 

 ing the weather that have been handed down 

 from generation to generation by French, Ger- 

 man, Swiss, Scottish, and other foreign peoples, 

 together with the writings, prose and poetic, 

 of their languages, and the ancient couplets, 

 quaint legends, and curious rules from our own 

 ancestors are given, with explanations of their 

 meaning and how nearly true they prophesy. 

 The second part of the book is intended par- 

 ticularly for the amateur meteorologist, and 

 contains the material submitted by the Bureau's 

 observers throughout the country on which 

 predictions are based. 



Floods of the Spring of 1903 in the Mississippi 

 Watershed. Bulletin M, U. S. Weather Bu- 

 reau. By H. C. FRANKENFIELD. Pp. 63. 

 15 charts and numerous half tone illustra- 

 tions. Government Printing Office. Price, 

 $1.00. 



The floods of 1903 in the Mississippi Valley 

 resulted in immense general damage to prop- 

 erty in that vicinity, and this publication is a 

 discussion of their causes and effects, arranged 

 by localities, with a general description of their 

 courses, and with special reports bearing on the 

 subject. The illustrations, two of which are 

 reproduced in this number of FORESTRY AND 

 IRRIGATION, portray graphically the tremen- 

 dous damage wrought. It is an exhaustive 

 summary and history of the entire flood, and 

 a number of charts showing precipitation dur- 

 ing periods preceding and during the flood, 

 with other data, are appended. The report is 

 particularly valuable in that it contains the 

 official figures and tabulations of the rise and 

 fall of the flood and the losses and technical 

 reports of the Weather Bureau's trained staff. 



Proceedings of the Iowa Park and Forestry Asso- 

 ciation. Third Annual Meeting. Pp. 173. 

 Illustrated. Published by the Association. 

 1904. 



About twenty-five valuable papers, delivered 

 at the Third Annual Meeting of the Iowa Park 

 and Forestry Association, held on December 7 

 and 8 of last year, are preserved in this volume. 

 The Association is doing much to encourage tl it- 

 practice of forestry in Iowa and education in 

 its principles, with the creation of national 

 parks and preservation of game, and the papers 

 of this meeting are for the most part on these 

 subjects or their special phases and applicabil- 

 ity to certain conditions. The contents are 

 divided into the business of the meeting proper, 

 with minutes, and the papers read, classified 

 under Forestry, Parksand Grounds, Schools and 

 the Trees, and The .Esthetic Side of Forestry. 

 Numerous illustrations amplify upon the text, 

 and the whole makes one of the handsomest 

 volumes of its kind that has been received. 



