BOOKS RECEIVED. 



721 



this is a charming description of the work done every month in the year, 

 the plants in flower, often the fruit and vegetables in season, with many 

 instructive notes on their culture, peculiarities, insect and fungoid foes, 

 the failures and successes. Mr. Rider Haggard very truly remarks : 

 " The individual, employer or servant, who is really master of all branches 

 of English gardening has not been met by me." To this we may add, 

 "and by no one else." But if we had more books written in Mr. Rider 

 Haggard's happy, educational manner, our knowledge of English 

 gardening would be greatly increased. 



" The Journal of Agricultural Science." , Royal 8vo., 148 pp. Vol. I. 

 Part I. (Cambridge University Press.) 5s. net. 



The first number of a new journal to be devoted to papers dealing 

 with scientific research connected with agriculture. It is to consist of 

 original papers, occasional critical articles on recent work, notes, reviews, 

 and discussions. 



The present number contains several articles of considerable interest 

 to gardeners. One by Dr. B. Dyer on " Town Manure " is especially 

 useful to us, and will doubtless be often referred to in future publications. 

 The articles on poor pastures will prove useful for advanced students and 

 for reference. A note on the new method of producing combined nitrogen, 

 i.e. as calcium cyanamide, by Mr. A. D. Hall, is not only immensely 

 interesting, but shows how thoroughly up-to-date is this new publication. 



This work is to be published as material accumulates at 5s. net, or 

 to subscribers at 15s. per volume of four parts. It is a work which will 

 be indispensable in libraries, where there is claimed to be an up-to-date 

 collection of works on horticulture. 



" Suggestions for the Consideration of Teachers and others concerned 

 in the work of Public Elementary Schools." 8vo., 155 pp. 1905. 

 (Parliamentary Publication, Cd. 2638.) Price 8d. 



This book is probably the most encouraging effort that the Board of 

 Education has yet put forth. It is an evident attempt to encourage the 

 children being taught on sound common-sense principles and with some 

 reference to their future in life. The Board encourages the training of 

 the five senses in the Infant school, so that " incidentally the scholars will 

 acquire a useful knowledge of the surroundings in which their lives will 

 be spent." This, it is recommended, should be followed with Observa- 

 tion Lessons and Nature Study, in which the teachers are reminded that 

 " habits of observation are better cultivated by the thorough examination 

 of a few objects rather than by a less careful examination of many," 

 whilst, on the other hand, " the same lessons should never be given twice, 

 because facts which have been discovered by the children are likely to be 

 remembered, and for that reason not likely to be re-observed." The 

 compilers very truly point out that "Natural History itself, the study of 

 the habits of birds or insects or plants, is apt to be too unsystematic, too 

 little under control, and soon degenerates into reading about things instead 

 of seeing them, or, still better, doing them " ; and that the teacher 

 " should not use technical terms : he should not say 1 cotyledon ' when 

 ' seed-leaf 1 will serve." The teachers are also told that in framing their 



