June 6, 1901] 



NA TURE 



gardening of this country, but even here we find scrap- 

 piness and irregularity of treatment. To the cultivation 

 of celery, for example, considerable space is devoted, and 

 this is well utilised, whereas the pea is dismissed with a 

 brief discussion, and the potato, of which so much more 

 should be said, receives notice of quite an inadequate 

 character. The author tells us that potatoes are planted 

 in drills 3 to 3^ ft. apart, and that if pieces of tubers 

 are cut to one eye, 8 to 10 bushels will be required to 

 plant an acre ; also that the yield averages about 75 

 bushels— or less than two tons to the acre. These state- 

 ments, like many others, do not apply to British or to 

 the best American practice. The farmer cropping in the 

 poorer soil of the open field plants 28 to 30 inches apart ; 

 he employs 22 to 25 bushels of seed, seldom cutting it, 

 and then only once, whereas a two ton crop would mean 

 financial ruin. For facts relating to the size and selection 

 of seed, the best size of cut sets, the method of box 

 sprouting for early crops and the most economical 

 methods of manuring, we look in vain. 



We notice with pleasure from the quotations made 

 that in the United States details are collected in relation 

 to the area of land devoted to various market garden 

 crops. The figures, and they relate to 1891, are in some 

 cases remarkable ; thus, asparagus covered 37,970 acres, 

 whereas potatoes were grown on only 28,000. Similarly, 

 the area devoted to seed production is shown in relation 

 to 40 varieties. Again, 25 pages are devoted to a list of 

 works by other authorities, with descriptive notes, and 

 bulletins issued by the various experiment stations upon 

 subjects connected with vegetable gardening. All this 

 is useful to the American reader. One of the most prac- 

 tical remarks in the book is that in which the author says 

 that if a man is only a plant grower and not a good 

 business man he will probably be a slave to the salesman, 

 but where the grower occupies a large area and possesses 

 sufficient capital to work it he can dictate to the market. 



We are sorry not to be able to give this work unqualified 

 praise ; it is admirably printed and illustrated, and will 

 afford help to those who possess a knowledge of prin- 

 ciples. We would conclude, however, with the remark 

 that the principles which we recognise in England are 

 identical with those which are taught in the United 

 States, and we venture to believe that our practice and 

 that followed in the Northern States have more in 

 common than the practices of the farmers and gardeners 

 of the north and south. The author does not fully 

 comply with these requirements. It is true that a student 

 may refer to a work of the same series on " Soil," but we 

 think the author would have acted wisely had he devoted 

 a short chapter to a description of soil, its varied 

 character and composition, how it is improved by culture, 

 and why it is adapted to particular crops. Similarly, a 

 definition of the principles which underlie the practice 

 of manuring might have found a place— and above 

 ;all, for gardeners know a great deal more about the 

 management of dung than of artificial fertilisers, the 

 importance of chemical manures and the role they play 

 might have been more fully recognised. Although, 

 therefore, the book is written primarily for the American 

 reader, there is no reason why it should not have been 

 made as interesting and instructive to the great con- 

 stituency on this side of the Atlantic. 

 NO. 1649, VOL. 64] 



LIBYANS AND EGYPTIANS. 

 Libyan Notes. By D. Randall- Maciver, M..^., and A. 

 Wilkin, B.A. Pp. 113; 25 plates. (London: Mac- 

 millan and Co., Ltd., igoi.) Price 2o.f. net. 



THE volume before us is, as the writers say, the result 

 of an e.xpedition to Algeria undertaken in the year 

 1900 with the view of obtaining such information as vvould 

 lead to the solution of the vexed question of the early 

 connection of the Berber tribes with Egypt. This hand- 

 some publication contains fifteen chapters, which are illus- 

 trated by a large number of beautifully executed plates, 

 and deals in an exhaustive manner with subjects which 

 appeal as much to the anthropologist in general as to the 

 Egyptologist in particular. The writers begin their 

 observations by references to the pictures of the Libyans 

 which are found painted in Egyptian tombs, and from 

 which we learn that this people had fair skins and beards 

 and blue eyes ; such pictures belong to the period of the 

 .XVIIIth and XLXth dynasties, but it does not follow that 

 they represent, either physically or racially, the North 

 African race or races which formed the indigenous substra- 

 tum in the ancient Egyptian. Indeed, so long as M. J. de 

 Morgan hesitates to apply the term Libyan to the pre- 

 dynastic Egyptians, less well informed mortals should 

 hesitate before doing so. 



The second chapter of the work gives a number of 

 general observations on the Berbers, and we may remark 

 in passing that the criticisms made by the writers on the 

 Arabs' show that they know little or nothing of the 

 greatest branch of the Semitic race; nothing but youth and 

 ignorance and prejudice can be pleaded in extenuation of 

 them. We confess at the outset that we have no faith in 

 the judgment, not to say scholarship, of writers who 

 intrude personal opinions of the kind in a work which 

 professes to be scientific. Chapter iii. deals with the 

 political and social organisation of a Berber people, and 

 chapters iv.-vi. with the Shawiya people and their man- 

 ners, customs, &c. ; the section on pottery is very inter- 

 esting. Three chapters (vii.-ix.) are devoted to the 

 description of the Kaba'il, their country, houses, indus- 

 tries, &c., and this is followed by a dissertation wherein 

 the " New Race" and Kabyle pottery are compared ; the 

 writers think that the modern Kabyle pottery is a survival 

 of ancient Libyan pottery, and that because it is almost 

 identical with that of pre-dynastic Egypt there must have 

 been a close connection between the two countries in the 

 most ancient times. There is a good deal of guessing in 

 argument of this kind, and their assertion that the 

 "hieroglyphic language is Semitic " is as bold and just as 

 true as the criticisms of the writers on the Arabs and their 

 character. They do not make this assertion except on 

 the authority of Dr. Erman, who is a good Egyptian 

 scholar, but then Dr. Erman is not a Semitic scholar in 

 any sense of the word, and he has never shown that he 

 has any competent knowledge of <2;y Semitic language; 

 on the other hand, Semitic scholars who have studied 

 Egyptology ad hoc declare that the old language of the 

 hieroglyphic inscriptions is not Semitic, and until we see 

 further proofs adduced we shall hold that the Semitic 

 scholars are right. 



The chapter on rude stone monuments in Algeria sum- 

 marises a good deal of general information obtained by 

 the writers and others, and it is interesting to note that 



