June 25, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



1001 



ture, it is unfortunate that the author did not 

 so change it, in accordance with the sugges- 

 tion of the writer, as to put the durum wheat 

 district in its correct position. This area, 

 however, is properly shown in another map 

 on page 48. Not long after the puhlication of 

 the first map hy the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture events occurred in the establishment 

 of durum wheat which greatly changed the 

 boundaries of the district. 



Because of the lack of special observation 

 and training in particular lines the author is 

 led into making a few peculiar statements, 

 some of which are not well founded; for ex- 

 ample, the statement on page 48 : " Common 

 bread wheats are usually grown on black soils. 

 These soils are not well adapted to fall wheat, 

 however, for it is apt to winterkill." There 

 is no good reason for this statement, with the 

 possible exception that black soils are often 

 heavy and therefore apt to bake and crack 

 open, thereby exposing the crown and roots to 

 the winter's cold, but even then rolling the 

 gi'ound is a simple remedy. As a matter of 

 fact, winter wheat is very commonly grown on 

 just such soils. 



Also, on page 51, it is not clear why the au- 

 thor should say : " Winter wheat may be sown 

 in spring and spring wheat in the fall. Only 

 a very few plants will ripen seed, but when 

 this is continuously sown, in three years the 

 spring variety will he changed to the winter^ 

 and vice versa." (Italics are the reviewers.) 

 There are only certain varieties, already on the 

 border of these two groups, that we are yet 

 certain can be thus changed at all, and even 

 these are likely to require much more than 

 three years to become completely adaptable in 

 the other group. 



There is a slight inaccuracy in the first 

 paragraph on page 56, which, however, in this 

 ease is rather important, as it refers to the in- 

 troduction of the present hard winter wheat, 

 called here " red winter wheat," from Russia 

 into Kansas. The Department of Agriculture 

 did not, as there mentioned, originally intro- 

 duce the wheat, but later took active part in 

 extending the area by further importations; 

 it appears that Russian Mennonites first 

 brought the wheat to Kansas. 



On pages 121 and 122, after describing the 

 extensive immigration into the Great Plains 

 region and the rapid settlement of that area, 

 saying : " The ' Great American Desert ' dis- 

 appeared from the maps," and " During a 

 series of years in which the rainfall was more 

 adequate than usual, the agricultural areas 

 leaped forward to the west from county to 

 county," the reader is suddenly brought 

 against a fall of cold water by the statement 

 that " Yet the blunt fact remained, and still 

 remains, that many millions of acres were 

 dead, vacant, and profitless simply because of 

 their aridity. This land has Kttle value now, 

 for in many places a whole section does not 

 yield enough to keep a fleet-footed sheep from 

 starving." Without any question much has 

 been said that is extreme on both sides of this 

 question of just how profitable may be the 

 cultivation of these semiarid lands, but doubt- 

 less there is a sane, medium ground to be 

 taken. It is certain that, as a rule, much 

 more may be produced than is sufficient " to 

 keep a fleet-footed sheep from starving," but, 

 on the other hand, the proper cultivation of 

 such districts is in no way child's play. No 

 doubt fair average results can be obtained, but 

 the farming must be done by the most intelli- 

 gent, up-to-date methods. 



Under the discussion of milling operations 

 we have, on page 272, the same old diagram 

 of a large flour mill which has been used in 

 various other publications, but which would 

 not be at all an accurate presentation of our 

 present-day, improved mills. 



After these statements of some imperfec- 

 tions, of which it must be admitted there do 

 not seem to be many, the author is to be 

 commended for the ample presentation he 

 makes of certain phases of wheat handling, 

 giving a particularly full discussion of the 

 marketing, price and movement of wheat, in- 

 cluding dealings on boards of trade, specula- 

 tion, grain privileges, delivery, etc. There is 

 considerable discussion, also, of storage, grain 

 elevators, the method of bagging on the 

 Pacific Coast, etc. 



The book is rather fully illustrated, particu- 

 larly along commercial lines. It is a book 

 that will be extremely useful not only to busi- 



