January, 19 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



xv 



of England, and a rather ludicrous and be- 

 wildering comparison of a rope-dancing 

 monkey with the boy and his "God-like 

 attributes." Throughout, the work is , 

 couched in that ponderous, uninteresting 

 language affected by pedants of the old 

 school. The saddest parts are those where, 

 the shadow of some humorous reference 

 has fallen across the mind of the writer 

 without focusing. 



Christopher Columbus. By Filson 

 Young. Xew York : Henry Holt & 

 Company: 1912. Cloth. 8vo. Illustrated. 

 Price. $2.50 net. 



As Henry Yignaud, the distinguished 

 historian of Columbus, says : "This book 

 marks an epoch in Columbian literature ; 

 for in it the hero is shown for the first 

 time as a living man . . . raised from 

 the dust of documents, and shown as a 

 human being. . . A more true and lively 

 picture of the great discoverer than is con- 

 tained in any other work." 



Miss Philura's Weddixg Gown. By 

 Florence Morse Kingslev. Xew York: 

 Dodd, Mead & Company': 1912. Cloth, 

 8vo. Illustrated. 232 pages. Price, 

 SI. 00 net. 



Thousands of readers, in fact tens of 

 thousands have enjoyed the delightful story 

 of the little woman who, havine thought 

 she was a plain old maid, discovered, 

 through a singular accident, that she was 

 by no means plain, not so very old, and 

 was wanted exceedingly by a would-be 

 husband. ''The Transfiguration of Miss 

 Philura'' has been one of those rare books, 

 a perennially popular one, finding a new 

 crop of delighted readers year after year. 

 And now comes the second step in Miss 

 Philura's romance — the wedding. How the 

 ladv, as poor as a church mouse, and as 

 mouse like, sets her heart on having a beau- 

 tiful white wedding gown, and how by the 

 exercise of childlike faith and simplicity 

 she gets it, make this sequel every bit as 

 good as the first Miss Philura story. 



Farmers of Forty Centuries. By F. H. 

 King, D.Sc. Madison, Wisconsin: Mrs. 

 F. H. King: 1911. Cloth, 8vo. Illu- 

 strated. 441 pages. Price, $2.50. 

 "We have not yet gathered up the ex- 

 perience of mankind in the tilling of the 

 earth," says Dr. L. H. Bailey in his pre- 

 face to Farmers of Forty Centuries, "yet 

 the tilling of the earth is the bottom con- 

 dition of civilization." This book, by the 

 late Dr. F. H. King, formerly professor of 

 Agricultural Physics in the University of 

 Wisconsin and Chief of Division of Soil 

 Management, U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, is the writing of a well-trained 

 observer who went forth not to find diver- 

 sion or to depict scenery and common 

 wonders, but to study the actual conditions 

 of life of agricutural people. We in 

 America have really only just begun to 

 farm well. It is the message of the con- 

 servation of our natural resources in con- 

 nection with agriculure that Professor 

 King embodied in this volume, the result 

 of his studies in the far East. Such 

 chapters as those on the extent of canaliza- 

 tion and surface fitting of fields and 

 the utilization of waste furnish western 

 nations with food for thought. Farmers 

 of Forty Centuries is adequately illustrated 

 by half-tone reproductions of photographs 

 taken in China, Korea, Tibet and Japan, 

 adding much interest to this excellent and 

 authoritative work which agriculturist and 

 layman alike would do well to study. 



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