December 9, 1909] 



NA TURE 



153 



M 



FKEXCH SYLVICULTURE. 

 Sylviculture. By Albert Fron. With an introduction 

 by Dr. P. Regnard. Second edition. Pp. 496. 

 (Paris : J. B. Bailliere et Fils, 1909.) 



R. G. WERY, the sub-director of the Institut 

 Agronomique, is the editor of the French 

 ■■ Agricuhural Encyclopaedia," which consists of sixty 

 volumes, each containing 400 — 500 pages, copiously 

 illustrated, and sold in paper covers at 5 francs each, 

 or bound for 6 francs. The subjects dealt with are 

 distributed under six headings, as follows :— 



(i) Cultivation and Improvement of the Soil. 

 General agriculture ; manures. 



(2) Production of Plants. Agricultural botany ; 

 cereals; fodder plants; garden vegetables, orchards, 

 vines, diseases of cultivated plants. Fron's sylvicul- 

 ture comes under this heading. 



(3) Production of Animals. Agricultural zoology; 

 entomology and the study of animal parasites ; farm 

 stock; breeding and rearing horses; fish; bees; birds; 

 game, &c. 



(4) Agricultural Technology. Dairy farming ; brew- 

 ing ; flour-mills ; cider, wine ; also agricultural chem- 

 istry in two volumes. 



(5) Rural Engineering. Agricultural machines; 

 motors; buildings; survey; drainage. 



(6) Rural Political Economy, and Law. This com- 

 prises six volumes, including hygiene. 



We have therefore a splendid series of cheap scien- 

 tific books by professors and experts of agriculture and 

 of the allied arts, and if the other subjects are treated 

 as skilfully and thoroughly as Mr. Fron has dealt 

 with sylviculture, the French landowners and farmers 

 are thus endowed with an excellent, cheap, technical 

 literature. 



Mr. Fron is an inspector of the State forests, and 

 professor of forestry at the National Forest School at 

 L,es Barres, where promising young forest guards are 

 trained to become head-guards and forest officers in 

 the State, communal, and private forests. The first 

 edition of the book has been sold, and this new edition 

 has extended the subject-matter, so as to form a 

 concise, clearly- written book, suitable for the private 

 landowner and his foresters. It is divided into three 

 parts : — • 



(i) The Forest and its Constituent Trees and 

 Shrubs. This gives an account of the life-history of 

 a tree, and a description of its parts ; a list of the 

 native woody species of France, with their botanical 

 characteristics, and the uses to which their timber 

 may be put. Then come trees considered in groups, 

 the effects of density of growth, or its absence, on 

 their forms and on the soil. Different kinds of crops 

 of trees, natural or artificial, indigenous or exotic, 

 follow, and the effects of forests on the flow of water 

 and on the soil of mountains are described. 



(2) Practical Sylviculture. Methods of stocking the 

 ground, artificial or natural. Human agency in its 

 effects on forest soil and on tree-crops. Methods of 

 felling. General ideas about working-plans (quite 

 sufficient for the private owner). Cubage and com- 

 binations of woods. Daily work done by an average 

 NO. 2093, VOL. 82] 



labourer in various operations. Protection of forests 

 against man, animals (including insects), physical 

 phenomena (fire, snow, gales, &c.) ; fungi, weeds, 

 &c. Valuation of forests. 



(3) Comprises a study of the types of forest that 

 prevail in France and of their management. 



The term sylviculture among French professional 

 foresters means a limited part of forestry, dealing 

 with the cultivations of forest trees, but not including 

 valuation or working-plans. The author, being a pro- 

 fessional forester, knows this well enough, but has 

 extended the meaning of the term in the way it is 

 understood by the French people, for, unfortunately, 

 the latter have not adopted the old French term, 

 " foresterie," which is more comprehensive than sylvi- 

 culture, corresponding to our term forestry. 



The book is well and logically written and up to 

 date, and its forestry is quite sound, while the print- 

 ing is well done, and though the plates are some- 

 what rough, owing to the smooth paper, they serve to 

 illustrate the author's points, and he has performed 

 his task in a masterly manner. 



A book resembling Fron's sylviculture, dealing with 

 British woodlands, is still a desideratum. Our works 

 on forestry are either comparatively very expensive and 

 above the heads of the estate forester, or are too 

 sketchy and controversial to be real text-books. But 

 it is doubtful whether any British author could afford 

 to publish a book like Fron's at 5s. a copy, so as to 

 place it within the reach of estate foresters. "Our 

 Forests and Woodlands," by John Nisbet, costing 

 ys. 6d., is still one of the best short accounts of 

 British woodlands, and is beautifully though sparsely 

 illustrated, but it does not possess the clear scientific 

 arrangement, nor the completeness of Fron's book. 

 " English Estate Forestry," by .\. C. Forbes, as well 

 illustrated as is N'isbet's book, costs 125. 6d., and 

 though also an excellent book, is not sufficiently 

 detailed to become an elementary text-book, nor does 

 it give a satisfactory account of coppice-with- 

 standards, which on the Continent is the only recog- 

 nised method of producing large, broad-leaved timber 

 other than beech that is within the range of private 

 estate management. W. R. Fisher. 



PRACTICAL CHE.MISTRY. 



(i) Exercises in Physical Chemistry. By Dr. W. .\. 



Roth. Authorised Translation by A. T. Cameron. 



Pp. xii+196. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 



1909.) Price 6s. net. 

 (2) Laboratory Methods of Inorganic Chemistry. By 



Heinrich Biltz and Wilhelm Biltz. .'\uthorised 



Translation by W. T. Hall and A. A. Blanchard. 



Pp. XV + 25S. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; 



London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1909.) Price 



12^. 6d. net. 

 (i) A CCORDING to the experience of the author 

 /»• of this laboratory guide to physical 

 chemistry, the existing German works on the subject 

 contain either too much or too little for the beginner, 

 and he has, therefore, attempted to cater for the 



