22 
Transgangetic family of language, with older 
and more recent members, the former squeezed 
into the sea board and the mountains, the lat- 
ter spreading over the interior and along the 
streams to the deltas. 
The Far East gives to the author his best 
perspective—in the remotest past, a rude stone 
age no better than that across the Pacific, in 
California; after that, three thousand years B. 
C., a bronze age; and then the gradual but 
victorious progress of the race, its customs and 
institutions. Japan and Korea are daughter 
races of Chinese culture. The closing section 
of this Asiatic portion of the volume is devoted 
to Asiatic forms of beliefand systems of religion. 
The necessity of religion is assumed, and, as to 
its forms in the arenas mentioned, ‘‘ they have 
their roots in a subsoil of widely diffused no- 
tions, in which even now leaves, flowers and 
seeds, fallen from the lofty trees, are reposing, 
dying, decaying, germinating. ”’ 
Ratzel is not in ecstasies over the blessings of 
the age of iron and machinery. Weare liable, 
he thinks, to overestimate the effect of metals 
in promoting culture. ‘‘The discovery of 
smelting and forging does not form an epoch. 
The spiritual foundations of our culture had no 
workers in steel.”’ 
So, the Europeans receive only a passing no- 
tice on the last few pages and are handed over 
to the historian. 
In a work upon which the author has ex- 
pended so much care and erudition one could 
wish that he had made more concessions to the 
reader. Few persons are learned enough to 
read the volume before us. If they desire to con- 
sult the authorities named, it is nearly unprac- 
tical, and the translation is not so helpful as 
the original. The illustrations are superb; 
they embellish and illuminate the work, but 
they do not greatly illustrate it. For example, 
the Kha flute, on page 370, after Harmand, 
finds no explanation for its strange combination 
of direct flute and reed instrument, and no ex- 
ample is in the national collection. As asum- 
mary of culture, however, among the peoples 
of the eastern hemisphere, still in the epoch 
of handicraft, Ratzel’s third volume is not only 
vastly superior to such books as Wood’s, which 
is saying little, but it places the author in the 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vo. X. No. 236. 
front rank among the students of culture-prog- - 
ress, whose pioneers were Klemm, Lubbock, 
Tylor and Morgan. 
O. T. MAson. 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 
Canada Experimental Farms Reports 1891-1898, 
Vols. 8, pp. 348, 289, 355, 422, 426, 474, 449 
and 429. Illustrated. 
The system of Experimental Farms of the 
Dominion of Canada was inaugurated in 1887, 
with the establishment of the Central Experi- 
mental Farm at Ottawa. Since then, as parts 
of the system, branch farms have been located 
at Nappan, Nova Scotia, for the Maritime 
Provinces ; Brandon, Manitoba ; Indian Head, 
Northwest Territories, and Agassiz, British 
Columbia. Each of the branch farms is under 
the direction of a Superintendent, who reports 
to the Director at the Central Farm, and he in 
turn to the Minister of Agriculture, the annual 
report being issued as an appendix to the report 
of the Minister of Agriculture. The organiza- 
tion of the Central Farm is somewhat like that 
of the Experiment Stations in this country, and 
the staff during most of the period covered by 
the above reports consisted of William Saunders, 
Director; James W. Robertson, agriculturist; 
John Craig, horticulturist; F. T. Schutt, chem- 
ist; James Fletcher, entomologist and botanist, 
and A. G. Gilbert, poultry manager. A fore- 
man of forestry, W. T. Macoun, since made 
horticulturist, was added to the force during 
the period covered by the report for 1897. 
At the several farms many lines of useful 
work are carried on, such as scientific investi- 
gations, practical field work, the study of for- 
estry problems, etc., different problems being 
investigated according to the immediate needs 
of the farming community, but at the Central 
Farm the greater part of the more important 
scientific investigations are carried on, this in- 
stitution being especially equipped for the pur- 
pose. In addition to the duties already outlined, 
the Central Farm has charge of the introduction ~ 
and distribution of seeds and plants, a few 
thousands of dollars being annually expended 
in purchasing and distributing seed grain and 
forest trees and tree seeds. 
The reports of the Experimental Farms give 
