BOOKS RECEIVED. 



213 



"Woburn Experimental Fruit Farm." Third Report, by His Grace 

 the Duke of Bedford, K.G., and Spencer Pickering, F.R.S. (Eyre and 

 Spottiswoode.) Is. Qd. 



A pamphlet of fifty- six pages only, but abounding with most interesting 

 and useful conclusions, arrived at after due and careful experiment, on the 

 effect of grass on fruit trees. The present report deals chiefly with the 

 result of experiments devised to ascertain the cause of the deleterious 

 action of grass on trees ; and though the actual cause still remains 

 unsolved, yet considerable progress has been made in the right direction 

 by eliminating most of those causes which have hitherto been suggested. 

 The deleterious effect which grass is found to have on trees is shown to 

 be due neither to an interference with the food supply, nor the water 

 supply, nor the air supply of the tree-roots, so that it must in all prob- 

 ability be attributed to the action of some product, direct or indirect, of 

 grass growth, which exercises an actively poisonous effect on the roots of 

 trees. The pamphlet should be studied by all interested in such subjects. 



