August 12, 1922] 



NA TURE 



set-back through the occurrence of the war, but 

 useful lessons have been learned and many subjects 

 have come forward or called for increased attention. 

 The cultivation of cotton has been shown to be success- 

 ful and profitable in Nigeria, in the northern provinces 

 great progress has been made in perfecting a cotton 

 originally grown from " American Upland " seed, 

 while the southern provinces have produced increasing 

 quantities of an improved native cotton of the type 

 of " Middling American." The products of the oil 

 palm and especially the kernel of the nut have been 

 in increased demand for edible purposes, but improved 

 methods of extraction are still awaited, and the success- 

 ful cultivation of the oil palm in the Dutch East Indies 

 and British Malaya threatens to rival the industry 

 in West Africa. Successful plantations of Para rubber 

 have been established in Nigeria and in the Gold Coast, 

 and the latter has become the chief cocoa producer of 

 the world. The extension and improvement of the 

 Agricultural Departments will be a factor in developing 

 the possibilities of the various territories in West Africa 

 for which Great Britain is now responsible. The 

 handbook will serve as a guide to all who seek informa- 

 tion on the agricultural and forest products of British 

 West Africa. 



Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Special Reports on 

 the Mineral Resources of Great Britain. Vol. 2 : 

 Barytes and Witherite. By G. V. Wilson, T. 

 Eastwood, R. W. Pocock, D. A. Wray, and T. 

 Robertson. With contributions by H. G. Dines. 

 Third edition. Pp. iv + 119 + 6 plates. (South- 

 ampton : Ordnance Survey Office ; London : E. 

 Stanford, Ltd., 1922.) 35. net. 



The issue of a third edition of this memoir shows 

 public appreciation of the economic work of the 

 Geological Survey ; the revision has involved further 

 visits to all the principal mines, and the records of 

 output include those of very recent years. A brief 

 sketch of the characters of the two minerals concerned 

 and of their uses precedes the detailed account of the 

 mines. Photographs of crystals, and some account 

 of the relation of barytes to metallic sulphides in the 

 field, might have added interest to this section ; but 

 the cost of the memoir to the public has no doubt been 

 carefully considered. The graphic tables showing the 

 total output go back only to 1890. It would be of 

 interest to trace the quick response of the Derbyshire 

 miners to the demand that arose in 1856. The earliest 

 date mentioned on ,p. 64 is 1892 ; but in 1857, two 

 years after the industrial development of barytes lodes 

 was started in the county of Cork, Derbyshire produced 

 as much as 9000 tons. The thoroughness of the memoir 

 as a record of present-day mining is shown by the 

 descriptions of methods of treatment of the ore at 

 various places, and of means of transport. 



G. A. J. C. 

 The Edge of the Jungle. By William Beebe. Pp. 237. 



(London : H. F. and G. Witherby, 1922.) 125. 6d. 



net. 



Mr. Beebe has a graphic pen. His account of the life 

 of bird, beast, and insect as seen from a small clearing 

 on the edge of the British Guiana forest gives a vivid 

 and kaleidoscopic impression of teeming life. His 

 capacity for close and careful observation and his 



NO. 2754, VOL. I 10] 



artistic power of selecting just the right details, com- 

 bine to convey to the reader a feast of tropical colour, 

 sound, and scent. It is impossible not to follow his 

 account of, say, the happenings in the " army ants' 

 home town " with an interest as tense as though he 

 described the fortunes of human individuals. The trans- 

 formation of " Guinevere " from a tadpole into a tree- 

 frog holds the reader entranced. Mr. Beebe does not 

 confine his attention entirely to his clearing ; while on a 

 visit to the gardens at Georgetown he was fortunate 

 enough to see a group of manatees of which he records . 

 his impressions for the benefit of his readers. Incident- 

 ally he raises an interesting question as to the origin 

 of flower growing for non-utilitarian purposes, which 

 may suggest to the anthropologist a new field in which 

 to view the influence of magic. 



Land Drainage. By W. L. Powers and T. A. H. Teeter. 



Pp. ix + 290. (New York : J. Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; 



London: Chapmanand Hall, Ltd., 1922.) 13.1r.6rf.net. 

 Land drainage occupies a large and important place 

 in American agriculture, and the volume under notice 

 is evidence of its prominence. It deals mainly with 

 conditions in the Corn Belt and Western States, and 

 is intended as a practical handbook from which may be 

 obtained the most important details of procedure in 

 the construction of drainage works. As these opera- 

 tions vary according to the nature of the land — 

 reclaiming a marsh presents different problems from the 

 draining of irrigated land which has begun to show 

 signs of alkali — the authors have supplemented their 

 general discussion by detailed descriptions of actual 

 installations. These accounts include the balance- 

 sheets of the operation, which show that in most of 

 the schemes the increased crops have paid for the 

 outlay in a short time. Particular interest attaches 

 to the section dealing with drainage laws, and the 

 manner in which the cost and the benefits of a proposed 

 scheme for a district are divided among the farmers. 

 The concluding chapter is devoted to the care and use 

 of surveying implements, and a useful appendix of 

 laboratory exercises is provided, in which the main 

 principles of drainage are illustrated. B. A. K. 



Homework and Hobby Horses. Edited by H. Caldwell 

 Cook. (Perse Playbooks, No. VI.) 'Pp. xii + 58. 

 (London : B. T. Batsford, Ltd., n.d.) 35. 6d. net. 

 The Perse Playbooks are by now sufficiently well 

 known to educationists. This little volume — the sixth 

 of the series — embodies a selection of poems, ballads, 

 and carols which have been produced, with one excep- 

 tion, by boys of the Perse School as a part of the system 

 of the play-method of teaching English composition. 

 The authors are all under fourteen, and the facility of 

 the verse and, generally, its smoothness suggest that 

 the statement that English verse composition has no 

 terrors for, at any rate, some of the boys, is well 

 founded. Some of the compositions are avowedly 

 parodies, others are obviously derivative, but main- 

 show a poetic feeling which is surprising, as well as a 

 considerable command of an appropriate vocabulary. 

 The incongruous, the mark of the unpractised versifier, 

 is commendably absent. It is interesting to note that 

 of the various classes of poems, the carols are by far the 

 most successful. 



