BOOK REVIEWS. 



"The Food Producing Garden." By H. A. Day, F.R.H.S. 8vo. ix + 

 98 pp. (Methuen, London, 1918.) is. net. 



Vegetables, fruits, some flowers, poultry, rabbits, and bees — all are dealt 

 with here, and much good advice given ; but here and there the author's en- 

 thusiasm leads him to statements and recommendations which, followed, will 

 often lead to disaster. It is not safe to use washing soda " in small and frequent 

 quantities — say an ounce to a square yard." Now and again in some soils 

 washing soda may, as the result of subtle chemical reactions which it sets up, 

 prove beneficial in small quantities, but even at 1 oz. to the square yard we 

 are getting 3 cwt. to the acre, and if this be added frequently in some soils it 

 will, not slowly, lead to sterility. 



Most of the mistakes and perverse ideas at which the author tilts are real — 

 some few are more imaginary than real — and many are less fearsome than one 

 would suppose. It is, however, well to ventilate these things, and criticize 

 them at times, but better perhaps that our criticisms be based upon broad 

 sympathies. And the garden is broad enough to furnish all men, at any rate 

 all men not in search of purely self-centred pleasures, with delight? — seme will 

 make it wholly " useful," i.e. they would grow little or nothing in it but what 

 would furnish food for their stomachs — a quite laudable practice which we would 

 do nothing to decry, for in the doing of it they are gaining that pleasure which 

 the cultivation of a garden can give — but others will find greater refreshment 

 for their spirit in some other form of garden, even in a garden consisting only 

 of a lawn, and may they not be justified too ? If the lawn be well kept it is a 

 pleasure to the eye for almost all the year, and its greenness a real refreshment 

 to the spirit of man, and not an entirely selfish* pleasure as cur author wculd 

 have us believe. 



Would that he had sung the joys of gardening for food production, and 

 penned its sorrows too if he wished, to point his moral and adorn his tale, without 

 passing such severe strictures on those whose tastes may differ frcm his — then 

 should we have gained the much good there is in this little book with greater 

 pleasure and greater readiness. 



" A Simple System of Book-keeping for Farmers and Smallholders, with a 

 Model Statement of Accounts and Balance-sheet." By D. G. Macdonald and 

 James Grant. 8vo. 72 pp. (Chambers, London, 1918.) Stiff covers, 15. 6d. 

 net. 



There is great need for extended knowledge and use of accurate methods of 

 book-keeping in almost all enterprises connected with the land, for rarely is 

 it possible to find out the cost of growing individual crops, so as to compare the 

 relative profits they afford and see where saving in labour expenses may be 

 effected. The little pamphlet (it is scarcely more) under review gives a clear 

 and succinct description of the best plan of keeping simple farm accounts with 

 a minimum of labour, but still so as to show exactly the condition of affairs 

 financially at the end of the working year. Although it is designed especially 

 for the small farm, yet the principles it attempts to inculcate are the same for 

 the horticultural holding ; and this being so we can confidently recommend it 

 to the horticultural smallholder or the market gardener. 



"Medicinal Herbs and Poisonous Plants." By David Ellis, D.Sc. xi -f 

 179 pp. 8vo. (Blackie, London [1918].) Paper boards, 2s. 6d. net. 



The conditions imposed by the Great War have taught us all how dependent 

 we have been upon overseas supplies of many things easy to produce in this 

 country, and among them common herbs are by no means least important. 



The present little book gives botanical descriptions of the plants which are 

 used in medicine, and of poisonous plants native in this country, together with 

 notes upon their properties and medicinal uses. It does not deal with cultiva- 

 tion. The excellent outline drawings of the plants referred to form a feature of 

 the book of much value. 



" Seed Farming in Britain." By A. J. MacSelf. 8vo. 32 pp. (Hortus 

 Printing Co., Burnley, 1919.) Paper boards, is. 6d. 



The author has done a good work by publishing this little book, for none upon 

 this subject existed in England. With his wish that we may more and more 

 see the seed requirements of the British Empire satisfied by seeds grown within 

 the British Empire, as indeed with most of his suggestions, we are wholly at one, 

 and it is no impossible ideal. With his warnings, too, to avoid attempting to 

 save seeds in small gardens (with a few exceptions), and that germination tests 



