348 



[Oct. 1906. 



Current Literature. 



Year-Booh of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1905.— Pub- 

 lished at the Government Printing Office, Washington ; 815 pages, with 31 

 articles and an appendix of 44 articles, 73 coloured and photographic plates and 

 130 text figures ; Edited by Geo. W. Hill. This is one of the best annual agricultural 

 publications we know of, and deals with every phase of agriculture practised in the 

 United States, with details of the year's progress and work in each department or 

 branch of the many agricultural industries. The report of the Secretary to the 

 Department, Mr. James Wilson, occupying 122 pages, reviews the year's work and 

 states that 1905 was another year of unsurpassed prosperity to the farmers of the 

 country. After supplying the wants of the people there was an enormous surplus 

 of agricultural produce for export ; and to mention only two articles, the increase 

 in the exports of cotton was valued at £1,870,000, and that of rice at £400,000. The 

 increased prosperity of the farmers has led to a large multiplication of small farmers' 

 banks throughout the agricultural regions, banks for which the farmer has supplied 

 the capital as a sound investment. "The man with the hoe has become the man 

 with the harvester and the depositor and shareholder of the bank." The Weather 

 Bureau has proved a useful department to the agriculturist ; and the extension of 

 its work in the arid and sub-arid regions has been of great value in the extensive 

 rrigation works in these parts. The Bureau of Plant Industry reports much 

 useful work accomplished in plant sanitation and the treating of plant diseases, in 

 achievements in cotton breeding, in work on nitrogen fixation, investigations into 

 drugs and poisonous plants, etc. The Forest Service, the Bureau of Chemistry, the 

 Bureau of Soils, the Office of Experiment Stations, all show continued active progress. 

 The Bureau of Entomology shows important results gained by the introduction of 

 beneficial insects. The introduction in California of the fig-fertilising insect of South 

 Europe has enabled a new industry in fig-growing to be started on promising lines in 

 that State. Other parasitic insects of various scale pests and of the Gypsy and Brown 

 tail moths, imported pests which have proved most harmful, have been introduced 

 into the States with beneficial results. A systematic effort is also being made to 

 introduce silk culture in the United States, Italian worms being imported. 



The Year-book contains a large number of instructive, illustrated articles ; 

 photography is largely used to illustrate these, and in "New Fruit Productions of 

 the Department of Agriculture," and " Promising New Fruits," coloured plates are 

 a feature. We may note the following articles as of special interest— Diversified 

 Farming in the Cotton Belt ; Dark Fire-cured Tobacco of Virginia ; The Business of 

 Seed and Plant Introduction and Distribution ; The Handling of Fruit for Trans- 

 port ; Effect of Inbreeding in Plants ; Influence of Experiment Station Work on 

 Culture of Field Crops ; Relation of Irrigation to Dry Farming ; and Opportunities 

 in Sub-tropical Fruit-growing. The appendix of 200 pages has also numerous good 

 articles. The whole Year-book is a splendid compilation, an example of the great 

 progress in agriculture made in the past few years, and evidence of the work being 

 done to encourage and assist the agriculturist in the United States ; but, as the 

 Secretary remarks in his report, " great as the work undertaken and accomplished 

 has been, and gratifying as are the results, we are still at the threshold of agri- 

 cultural development, and the educational work which has led to such grand 

 results has only been extended as yet to a portion of our agricultural popu- 

 lation."— I. E. 



