April, 1910.] 



355 



Miscellaneous. 



be such special institutions as deal only 

 with one branch of agricultural instruc- 

 tion, as dairying, forestry, &c. As 

 before, the Board of Education will be 

 in charge of the agricultural instruction 

 that is provided by the county councils 

 and other local educational authorities, 

 but it is not clear by which Board, or 

 in what way, pressure can be brought 

 to bear upon the backward counties 

 that at e now doing nothing for organised 

 agricultural education. For example, 

 the East Sussex County Council uses 

 part of its " whisky money " to main- 

 tain an agricultural college, which is 

 further assisted by grants from the 

 Board of Agriculture, the West Susspx 

 County Council next door puts the 

 whisky money to the relief of rats, and 

 does nothing for agricultural education. 

 The defect in the Board of Agriculture's 

 administration has been the fact that it 

 has been powerless in such cases ; it 

 could neither compel nor bribe such 

 counties to do their duty, and what the 

 public interested in such matters is 

 anxious to know is how the new arrange- 

 ment will be worked to ensure a pro- 

 vision of higher agiicultural education 

 for farmers in all parts of the country, 

 a national system that is not dependent 

 on the caprice or the poverty of any 

 county council. 



The novel feature in the memoran- 

 dum besides the Inter-Departmental 

 Committee is a proposal to create a 

 Rural Education Conference, consisting 

 of representatives of the County Coun- 

 cils' Association, the Agricultural Edu- 

 cation Association, and other agricul- 

 tural organisations, with certain officers 

 of the two Boards. Such a consultative 

 committee seems to smack of the Board 

 of Agriculture's favourite attitude of 

 asking the farmers what it can do 

 for them, but perhaps the influence 

 of the Board of Education, which 

 takes a less humble view of its own 

 expert qualifications and powers to 

 give a lead, will supply the stiffening 

 and find a means of translating the 

 suggestions of the conference into 

 practice. 



SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE. 

 By P. S. Eable. 



(Prom Science, Vol. XXIX., No. 731, 

 January 1, 1909.) 



This work has many points of merit 

 to commend it to the schools of the 

 south, and will no doubt be widely used 

 as a text-book. It is divided into two 

 parts, the first dealing with general 



considerations, such as climate, soil, soil 

 management, soil improvement, the 

 growth of plants, insects and diseases, 

 and closes with a chapter on farm 

 policy and management. The second 

 part treats of the chief southern agri- 

 cultural crops, including grasses and 

 forage crops, fibre crops, tobacco, coffee, 

 fruits, nut crops and forestry, and 

 closes with a short chapter on domestic 

 animals. 



In the chapter on management of 

 the soil, valuable suggestions are given 

 on the use of farm implements, a part 

 of agriculture so often neglected by 

 writers. A little farther on, soil im- 

 provement is well treated and the re- 

 lation of leguminous crops to same, with 

 recommendations of certain leguminous 

 crops for certain kinds of soil. The 

 student is shown the relation of the 

 plant to the soil, and the functions of 

 the different parts of plants. The 

 chapter on spraying and sprays, con- 

 taining formula? for different sprays, 

 is well arranged and almost indispen- 

 sable, inasmuch as crop enemies, such as 

 insects and fungi are so rapidly increas- 

 ing in the south where heat and mois- 

 ture are so conducive to their welfare. 



In treating of individual crops in the 

 second part of the book, the method is 

 'to be commended. First, the author 

 deals with the crop itself, and then as 

 far as consistent with the nature of the 

 plant, takes up a detailed study in each 

 individual crop, of soil and climate, 

 manuring, methods of planting and cul- 

 tivating, and harvesting. This unifor- 

 mity of method gives the pupil the 

 benefit of comparing one crop with 

 another on any of these points suggested. 



Just what is meant by southern agri- 

 culture is not suggested by the author, 

 but from the numerous references to the 

 tropics and the tropical agriculture, it 

 would seem that they are included in 

 the title of the book. Possibly it would 

 have been better to have gone a little 

 further into the general and specific 

 methods of tropical agriculture, and 

 have given the book the title "South- 

 ern and Tropical Agriculture." 



There seems to be very little excuse 

 for devoting twenty-four pages to sugar- 

 cane and only sixteen to cotton, when 

 the author states that cotton is our 

 "greatest commercial crop," also, only 

 twelve to corn, "the most important 

 crop." A little more space should have 

 been devoted to the best methods of 

 improving cotton and corn, if not any 

 less to sugar cane, especially after the 

 above statements. The space devoted 

 to an explanation of the poor methods 

 of cotton planting on page 175 and 17'i 



