RECENT 



PUBLICATIONS 



Cotton. Its Cultivation, Marketing Manu- 

 facture and the Problems of the Cot- 

 ton World. By Charles William Burkett 

 and Clarence Hamilton Poe, Pp. 331 ; Il- 

 lustrated with many half-tones. Price 

 $2 net. Doubleday, Page & Co. 



In calling attention to the undoubted 



value of this book the reviewer cannot do 



better than quote its introductory para- 

 graph : 



"Cotton what a ropal plant it is !" Henry 

 Grady once exclaimed. "The world waits 

 in attendance on its growth ; the shower 

 that falls whispering on its leaves is heard 

 around the earth ; the sun that shines on 

 it is tempered by the prayers of all the peo- 

 ple ; the frost that chills it and the dew that 

 descends from the stars are noted, and the 

 trespass of a little worm on its green leaf 

 is more to England than the advance of 

 the Russian army on her Asian outposts. 

 It is gold from the instant it puts forth its 

 tiny shoot. Its fibre is current in every 

 bank, and when, loosing its fleeces to the 

 sun, it floats a sunny banner that glorifies 

 the 1 f'elds of the humble farmer, that man 

 is a : -shaled under a flag that will compel 

 the alkgiance of the world and wring a 

 subsidy r om every nation on earth." 



To th the authors add: 



"And in this flight of eloquence the 

 Georgia orator did not overestimate the im- 

 portance of the South's great staple crop. 

 We do not exaggerate when we claim that 

 no other plant in all the vegetable king- 

 dom is of so much importance to the hu- 

 man race. Destroy any fruit plant in the 

 world, and the men will grow other fruits. 

 Let a lumber tree become extinct to- 

 morrow, and other trees will take its place 

 and our building go on as before. Even if 

 corn or wheat or rice should perish from 

 tin earth, we could grow enough of the 

 other crops, supplemented by rice, oats, 

 barley, rye, peas, beans, etc., to feed both 

 man and beast with comfort. But there 

 is no substitute for cotton that can be culti- 

 d on a large scale; no substitute, ani- 

 mal or vegetable product, with which civili- 

 n's present demand for clothing could 

 be supplied. 



"Nor is there any other plant with a his- 

 tory more marvelous or more romantic 

 more suggestive of the legend and myth- 

 ology of its Oriental home, where it first 

 began to serve mankind. If Frank Norris 

 had lived in the South instead of California, 

 what an Epic of the Cotton he might have 

 given us what a story of cotton, respond- 

 ing only to the warmth of a Southern sun 

 and yielding a richer fleece than ever Jason 

 dreamed of; Cotton, whose influence did 

 most to bring us an alien race from Africa, 

 and then did most to perpetuate in America 

 the institution of human slavery ; Cotton, 

 on which a 'Dixie Land, the Land of Cot- 

 ton,' once built its hopes while it waged 

 one of the greatest wars of modern times ; 

 Cotton, which helped the vanquished peo- 

 ple to their feet again, and now bids fair 

 to restore them to a proud position in 

 wealth and industry !" 



The foregoing paragraphs breathe the 

 glory of cotton, and the three hundred and 

 more pages that follow tell, better than 

 has been told before, of the raising and 

 manufacturing the product of this wonder- 

 ful plant. Professor Burkett and Mr. Poe 

 had a splendid subject and they have pro- 

 duced a book in keeping with it. Anyone 

 desiring an authoritative volume on the 

 great cotton industry should not fail to 

 secure this one. 



The Packers, The Private Car Lines and 

 the People. By J. Ogden Armour, Pp. 



380; illustrated. Henry Altemus Co., Phila- 

 delphia. 



Mr. Armour's book is made up of a series 

 of articles that appeared first in the Satur- 

 day Evening Post. These papers break a 

 "corporation silence," as he says, because 

 unfair and even malicious attacks have been 

 made by professional agitators and yellow 

 magazines, upon the industry in which he 

 has such a prominent part. 



There is no doubt that packing house evils 

 have been greatly exaggerated in certain 

 directions recently, but that sweeping re- 

 forms were needed no one is now ignorant. 

 It would have been much better for Mr. 

 Armour and the great industry he repre- 

 sents if the "corporation silence" had been 



