_ (3) A Handbook of Forestry. 
ae’ nil 
+ 
NoveEMBER 6, 1913] 
NATURE 
289 
attempt has been made to render the descriptions 
as little obtuse as possible, so that they may be 
of interest to sportsmen as well as to scientific 
naturalists, to the former of whom the Ungulates 
are of special interest. 
Recent minute study and careful comparison of 
specimens has led to such multiplication of species 
that new arrangements of them are unavoidable. 
In most modern works an attempt is made to 
group the known forms by instituting new and 
narrower genera which are often identical with 
old-time species. Mr. Lydekker attempts to attain 
the same end by classing nearly-related forms as 
races of a single species. We are not sure that 
we approve of this method, which involves a 
greater use of trinomials, where binomials would 
often suffice, and is, we think, a hopeless struggle 
against modern tendencies. In the case of the 
musk-oxen this practice gains nothing; nor does 
it seem a great advantage to grade all the sheep 
inhabiting the North American continent as sub- 
species of Ovis canadensis. In other respects we 
have nothing but praise for a work which will 
certainly be valued by those for whom it is in- 
tended. 
THE SCIENCE OF FORESTRY. 
(1) The Theory and Practice of Working Plans 
(Forest Organisation). By Prof. A. B. Reck- 
nagel. Pp. xli+235+6 plates. (New York: 
John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and 
Hall, Ltd., 1913.) Price 8s. 6d. net. 
(2) The Important Timber Trees of the United 
States: A Manual of Practical Forestry. By 
S. B. Elliott. 
Constable and Co., Ltd., 1913.) Price ros. 6d. 
net. 
Bypew..- B.A. 
(Watford: The Cooper 
Price 2s. 6d. net. 
Hudson. Pp. ix+82. 
Laboratory, n.d.) 
HE output of forestry literature in America is 
becoming remarkable. In addition to several 
admirable periodical publications like the Forest 
Quarterly and the Proceedings of the Society of 
American Foresters, as well as the’ numerous 
bulletins, circulars, and miscellaneous works 
issued by the Forest Service at Washington, there 
are constantly appearing now useful text-books on 
the different branches of the science of forestry. 
These are especially valuable to us, as, with the 
exception of the standard works of Nisbet and 
Schlich, which are necessarily limited and stereo- 
typed in scope, scarcely any serious books on 
forestry have appeared of late years in England. 
In arboriculture, which is the study of individual 
trees, on the contrary, English writers still keep 
NO. 2297, VOL. 92]| 
Pp. xix +382+plates. (London: 
up the tradition of Loudon and are in the first 
rank. 
(1) Forest organisation is the subject of an 
excellent book by Prof. Recknagel, of Cornell 
University. The works in English on this im- 
portant branch of forestry hitherto available have 
been practically two only, Schlich’s ‘“ Manual,” 
vol. iii., somewhat limited in scope, and D’Arcy’s 
‘““Working Plans,” confessedly confined to Indian 
practice. We have had no treatise which gave a 
general discussion of the subject. The merit of 
Prof. Recknagel’s work is the clear and concise 
way in which he treats of the different methods of 
estimating the yield of the forest, and the ample 
details which he gives concerning the modes of 
management in Germany, Austria, France, and 
the United States. The author agrees with 
Schlich in considering that Judeich’s method is the 
most rational of the seventeen methods described 
for determining the yield, i.e., of calculating the 
actual amount of timber that should be cut 
annually in a forest, which is worked so as to 
give a constant annual return. This method, 
with obvious simplifications, can be adapted to 
ordinary estates in England, on which there is 
a considerable area of woods of different ages. 
On p. 53, line 9, there is an obvious error : 49,000 
should read 24,500. 
(2) It is significant of the depletion of the 
timber supplies of the United States that numerous 
books are now being published there which deal 
with the formation of new woods by planting 
methods. The latest of these, by Mr. Elliott, is 
designed for the use of private landowners in 
America. The first part (pp. 1-129) deals with 
the ordinary details of sylviculture, and contains 
nothing novel, though the account of nursery 
work, as it is carried on in Pennsylvania, with 
illustrations of the State Forest Nursery, is of 
considerable interest. 
The second part of the book (pp. 130-357) is a 
description of the important timber trees which 
are suitable for planting for profit in North 
America. There is scarcely any information in 
this which will be of much service to English 
foresters, as the author’s experience is mostly 
drawn from the eastern part of the United States, 
while for us it is the Pacific Coast trees that are 
of value. His knowledge of the latter is limited, 
as evidenced by the perfunctory way in which the 
Douglas fir is treated, and the omission of the 
Sitka spruce. The statement that “one who pur- 
chases Western hemlock believing it to be Oregon 
pine is not much wronged” is quite erroneous. 
The latter tree (Pseudotsuga Douglasit) is, of 
course, much superior to the hemlock, both in 
rate of growth and in the quality of the timber 
