BOOK REVIEWS. 



369 



BOOK REVIEWS. 



" Science and Fruit Growing." By the Duke of Bedford, K.G., 

 F.R.S., and Spencer Pickering, M.A., F.R.S. 8vo. xi + 350 pp. 

 (Macmillan & Co., London, 1919.) 12s. 6d. net. 



Twenty-five years have elapsed since the establishment of the 

 Woburn Experimental Fruit Farm, and this book deals with many 

 of the investigations familiar to readers of the various Reports which 

 have been issued from time to time by the authors. It forms an 

 invaluable handbook of the latest ideas as to the best cultural practices 

 and their scientific bases, and a knowledge of its contents is indis- 

 pensable to anyone who regards himself as an up-to-date exponent 

 of the principles governing the planting of fruit-trees, and their sub- 

 sequent management. Its style is a model of clearness and concise- 

 ness, and there are no unnecessary technicalities, though the chemical 

 formulae in the chapters on insecticides and fungicides will doubtless 

 tax those whose memory of such has been lost in the tide of years. 



When the Farm was started in 1894, scientific practice had scarcely 

 begun to be applied to fruit-growing, and, as was to be expected, the 

 results of the tests and experiments have been to expose the fallacy 

 of many generally held beliefs and rule-of-thumb methods. Some of 

 the results as set forth in the Reports have been violently opposed, 

 sometimes with the addition of personal abuse, the authors tell us 

 in the preface, and one or two of these results are discussed here with 

 an open mind. For instance, the damaging effects of grass over the 

 roots of young fruit-trees is admittedly accentuated on the Farm by 

 the shallowness of the surface soil, and the impenetrability of the 

 Oxford clay subsoil which make it impossible for the roots of the trees 

 to get away from the grass (p. 308). Again, the beneficial effects of 

 the careless planting of trees, which has been the cause of so much 

 adverse criticism, is shown to be mainly caused by the ramming to 

 which such trees were subjected (p. 33), this bringing a larger portion 

 of the main roots into intimate contact with the soil, thus inducing 

 the formation of greater numbers of new root fibres, and those of 

 a strength and vitality which the delicate fibrous roots we used to 

 be told to lay out so carefully are quite incapable of producing, even 

 if they live after the drying during removal. It is interesting to note 

 that one large firm this winter is advising its customers to ram the soil 

 about the roots when planting. These results, and their broad treat- 

 ment, constitute an object-lesson to us in our attitude to new methods 

 and theories. 



The authors admit that some of the results are at present difficult 

 of explanation. For instance, in planting gooseberries and currants, 

 the new root formation from roots which were broken was two and 



