REVIEWS — NATURAL HISTORY. 243. 



The articles on the domesticated animals, drainage of land, and 

 Fertilizers, will all repay a careful perusal, although they contain little 

 or nothing of novelty, either as to facts or illustrations : most of the 

 matter may be found in the usual standard publications that treat of 

 such subjects. " The English and Scotch systems of dairy manage- 

 ment" is a carefully compiled paper from authentic sources, and cannot 

 fail to improve that important department of American husbandry. 



The birds injurious to agriculture, and the quadrupeds of Illinois 

 injurious and beneficial to the farmer, are the only papers that can 

 claim much originality, either in execution or mode of application. 

 The accompanying illustrative engravings are numerous, and, for such 

 a work, pretty well executed. The cuts will throw much interesting 

 light on the text ; and we have no doubt but these articles will be 

 perused with interest and profit, not only by farmers, but by a large 

 circle of general readers. 



Upon the whole, the annual volumes issued by the Patent Office, 

 strongly indicate a progressive improvement, and the zeal and activity 

 of the Department. And when it is considered that the m.echanical 

 and manufacturing arts receive at its hands at least an equal share of 

 attention and patronage with agriculture, there is sufficient ground for 

 concluding, that such an organization so liberally sustained by the 

 State, must be' productive of the most valuable and wide-spread bene- 

 fits to the country at large. 



Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of 

 America. By Louis Agassiz. First Monograph. Vols. I. and II. 

 Boston: Little, Brown & Co. London: Trlibner & Co., 1857. 

 At length we have received two volumes of this fine work. Of delay 

 previous to publication we make no complaint, as it was obviously oc- 

 casioned by a desire to improve the valuable materials collected ; but we 

 confess we felt some dissatisfaction, when week after week passed away, 

 after we knew the volumes to be in the hands of others, without a copy 

 reaching Canadian subscribers. The publishers, we trust, will see the 

 propriety of treating all subscribers alike in this respect, and we ven- 

 ture at the same time to observe that, if there is sufficient reason for 

 publishing two volumes together now, it is a departure from the pro- 

 posed plan, likely to be inconvenient to many subscribers, and therefore 

 to be avoided in future. The book is got up in a very handsome 



