BOOK REVIEWS* 



721 



" A Survey of the Soils and Agriculture of Shropshire." By 

 G. W. Robinson, B.A. 8vo., 9S pp. (Walker, Shrewsbury, 1913.) 

 is. paper. 



This is a really valuable collection of facts concerning the soils of 

 Shropshire, and we congratulate the Higher Education Committee of 

 the County of Salop on the clear-sighted policy they have adopted in 

 arranging for the prosecution of the investigation and its publication 

 in this convenient form. Similar information has recently been 

 published by the Board of Agriculture regarding Kent, Surrey, and 

 Sussex, and we hope that ere long we may see the whole of England 

 surveyed in the same way. It is now over twelve years since the 

 present writer suggested a similar survey to one of our larger county 

 education committees (but without success then), for the progress of 

 both agriculture and commercial horticulture depends very largely 

 upon the choice of suitable soils for the growth of particular crops. 

 This choice must be governed by several considerations, but the 

 physical structure of the soil is, perhaps, most important, and it is 

 with this, and the correlation between it and the crops grown, 

 that the present little book deals. It is an admirable piece of work, 

 and we commend it to the careful study of all practical commercial 

 gardeners. 



" The Chemistry of Plant and Animal Life." By H. Snyder, B.S. 

 Ed. 3. 8vo., xxii + 388 pp. (Macmillan, New York, 1913.) 6s. 6d. net. 



A series of lessons with experimental exercises in elementary 

 chemistry and the chemistry of plant and animal life, intended for 

 students in schools and colleges, and for such the present book will 

 prove a useful and safe guide. This third edition is newly revised 

 and arranged, and it is, perhaps, a little remarkable that there is no 

 mention of nitrate of lime (though calcium cyanamide is referred to). 

 The wide field covered renders the treatment here and there very 

 brief, perhaps too brief to stimulate desire for further knowledge, and 

 makes it rather of the nature of a cram-book. 



"The Fertility of the Soil." By E. J. Russell. 8vo., 128 pp. 

 (University Press, Cambridge, 1913.) is. net. 



" Bees and Wasps." By O. H. Latter. 8vo., 132 pp. 

 (University Press, Cambridge, 1913.) is. net. 



We have already referred, more than once, to the excellence of the 

 volumes forming this series of " Cambridge Manuals of Science and 

 Literature." The titles indicate the subjects dealt with in the present 

 volumes, and each, like all in the series, is the work of a master hand, 

 and gives a comprehensive survey of the subject, written in such a 

 way that those previously ignorant of it cannot fail to gain interest 

 and profit from its perusal. 



VOL. XXXIX. 3B 



