June 4, 1903] 



NATURE 



lOI 



ance to the statesman wishing to get a sound idea of 

 the state of an industry subject to such local variations 

 as agriculture, seem to have dropped out of favour 

 in this country ; to parallel them we must go back fifty 

 years to the prize reports on the farming of the various 

 counties which used to be a feature of the earlier 

 numbers of the Journal of 1^ Royal Agricultural 

 Society. 



The Tavoliere di Capitanata is a dry flat plain with 

 an annual rainfall of only eighteen inches, and a mean 

 temperature of more than 60° F. ; the prevailing cal- 

 careous subsoil results in there being but little surface 

 water, while the few rivers descending from the 

 Apennines are torrential in their nature, and in con- 

 sequence have formed a considerable area of marsh. 

 The agriculture of the district is of a primitive 

 character, much of it is pastoral, this being one of the 

 sheep-producing districts of Italy; the cultivated land 

 is farmed on a kind of four-course rotation of hard 

 wheat (macaroni wheat), wheat, oats and fallow, and 

 on the poorer land an even simpler rotation of wheat 

 or oats and fallow alternately is practised. A certain 

 acreage is also occupied by vines and olives. 



The author, after a preliminary discussion of the 

 meteorological conditions, geology, &c., of the dis- 

 trict, proceeds to describe the system of management 

 which prevails, and sets out in' detail the cost of the 

 various operations, rates of wages, and gross returns 

 as regards sheep, wheat and vines. As a means of 

 improving the condition of agriculture he lays stress 

 on the introduction of forage crops, such as temporary 

 pastures, sainfoin and lucerne, instead of the present 

 primitive and exhausting alternation of cereals and 

 fallow. 



The Stellar Heavens. By Ellard Gore. Pp. xxxii + 

 128. (London : Chatto and Windus, 1903.) Price 

 25. net. 



The author has brought together in a small compass a 

 list of the more prominent objects in the heavens for 

 the use of possessors of small telescopes. The list is 

 accompanied also by brief historical and introductory 

 information applicable to each class of object treated. 

 There are five chapters in all, and these are devoted to 

 the following subjects :— Stars, double, multiple and 

 binary stars, variable stars, star-clusters and nebulae, 

 and the stellar universe. In the first of these a brief 

 account, among other topics, is given of the classifica- 

 tions of stellar spectra, but unfortunately the reader 

 is not told that Vogel's classification is based on the 

 assumption that all stars are decreasing in tempera- 

 ture, while a natural and more recent classification, 

 dividing the stars into groups in which they are in- 

 creasing or decreasing their temperature, is altogether 

 omitted. 



The paragraph devoted to the explanation of tem- 

 porary or new stars is needlessly brief considering the 

 number of views expressed on this important subject. 

 On the other hand, an excellent account is given of 

 the methods of observing the brighter variable stars 

 which are in the reach of amateurs, and it is hoped 

 that this interesting branch of astronomy, one specially 

 suitable for those who have only opera glasses at their 

 service, will be taken up more generally. 



The volume will, however, be a very useful help 

 for directing the observer's attention to the various 

 more conspicuous objects in the sky, and although it 

 does not pretend to take the place of that well-known 

 friend of amateurs, namely, Webb's " Celestial Objects 

 for Common Telescopes," it will prove a serviceable 

 guide. The only erratum found was the misspelling 

 of the name of Klinkerfues on p. 23, although the 

 name is indexed correctlv. 



Departmental Notes on Insects that Affect Forestry. 

 By E. P Stebbing, F.L.S., F.E.S., Forest Ento- 

 mologist under the Government ot India. No. 2. 

 Pp. vii+ 151-334; plates vii-xix. (Calcutta, 1903.) 

 The importance of economic entomology is now fully 

 recognised by the Indian Government, and the publica- 

 tion before us is devoted chiefly to Scolytidae and other 

 beetles injurious to the bark and leaves of trees, and 

 to their, parasites; a few moths and scale-insects are 

 also noticed. Each species occupies several pages, and 

 is fully dealt with under various headings, the most 

 important being description, life-history, relations to 

 the forest, points in the life-history requiring further 

 observation (an extremely important matter), protection 

 and remedies, localities, parasites, fungi, &c. Several 

 species are referred to under their generic names only, 

 but this will not render their identification a matter of 

 any great difficulty. The illustrations are fairly good, 

 and many of them are devoted to galleries of Scoly- 

 tidae and' to different portions of trees attacked by 

 insects. The illustrations of the Coccid, Monophlebus 

 Stehbingi, Green, on plate 14 are very interesting. 

 We are sorry that Mr. Stebbing has overlooked the 

 necessity for adding the author's name to every de- 

 scribed species mentioned ; it is done in some cases, but 

 is frequently omitted, and many of the species described 

 have " M.S." appended to their names. We presume 

 that these are names published for the first time by Mr. 

 Stebbing himself, in which case he should either have 

 added his own name or else " n. sp." 



We are glad to notice the increase of well-illustrated 

 publications on economic entomology, for their value 

 is considerable, both from a practical and from a 

 scientific point of view. 



Analytical Chemistry. By F. P. Treadvi-ell, Ph.D. 



Translated from the second German Edition by 



W. T. Hall, S.B. Pp. xi + 466. (New York: 



Wiley and Sons; London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 



1903.) Price 3 dollars. 

 The text-book is compiled from lectures delivered by 

 the author at the Polytechnic Institute at Zurich. The 

 matter is, as one might expect, very largely explan- 

 atory of the various reactions, that is to say, it is a 

 book to be studied rather outside than in the labor- 

 atory. From this point of view it doubtless serves 

 a useful purpose, for every reaction is clearly described 

 and illustrated by an appropriate equation. 



One may doubt sometimes the expediency of simpli- 

 fying all analytical operations on paper in this way, 

 but, provided practical experience is added as a 

 corrective, the value of an equation as a general guide 

 to a reaction can do no harm. 



The book is written in a thoroughly scientific spirit 

 — not a common characteristic of books on this subject 

 — and the author is conversant with the modern theory 

 of analytical chemistry, to which reference is frequently 

 made. 



Seeing that prominence is given to minerals in 

 which the different elements occur, one misses the 

 refinements of blowpipe analysis which Plattner and 

 Richter did so much to develop. Possibly this might 

 have made the voluiVie too bulky. As it is, the in- 

 formation seems . accurate and complete. There are 

 plenty of tables of separation, and there is a section at 

 the end devoted to the rarer elements. The book is 

 printed on good paper in clear type, and is bound in 

 a substantial cover. Altogether the external appear- 

 ance, for a work on qualitative analysis, produces a 

 very favourable impression. The translator has done 

 his work well. Whether this justifies the prominence 

 given to his name on the back can scarcely be decided 

 bv the reviewer. J. B. C 



NO- '753. VOL. 68] 



