BOOK REVIEWS. 



133 



of avenues and pergolas or in the shape and size of flower-beds, 

 are what impress most in famous European gardens. This book 

 should, however, prove an incentive to English gardeners, who some- 

 times err in devoting all their energy and good taste to the growing 

 of plants and not to the use of them in the garden. They either 

 omit garden design or else introduce it so plentifully, without due 

 regard to suitable surroundings, that restfulness is lost. Mrs. 

 Humphreys' belief in proper restraint, and her warning against 

 "overdoing" and "incongruity" as regards garden design, will be 

 welcomed by the educated, artistic women gardeners, who are now 

 being very generally employed for such skilled work in English gardens. 



" Field Crop Production." By Prof. George Livingston, Assistant 

 Professor of Agronomy, Ohio State University. 8vo. xix + 424 pp. ; 

 illustrated. (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1914.) 6s. net. 



" Forage Plants and their Culture." By Charles V. Piper, M.S., 

 Agrostologist in charge of forage crop investigations, Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. 8vo. xxi -f 618 pp. ; illustrated. 

 (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1914.) js. 6d. net. 



"A Text-book of Grasses." By A. S. Hitchcock, Systematic 

 Agrostologist, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. 8vo. xvii + 276 pp. ; 

 illustrated. (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1914.) 6s. 6d. net. 



These three volumes belong to the Rural Text-book Series which 

 is being brought out under the editorship of Professor L. H. Bailey, 

 whose writings on agricultural and horticultural subjects are well 

 known and much appreciated in this country. 



Although written from the American point of view, they contain 

 much that is of interest and value to students and others interested 

 in rural subjects in this country, and also many hints as to the cultiva- 

 tion and handling of crops that the practical man might find it to his 

 advantage to apply in working an English farm. 



The volume devoted to field crop production deals with the rotation 

 of crops and then describes in detail the cultivation of cereals, legumes, 

 forage and fibre crops. Some of these, such as maize, rice, and millets 

 amongst the grains, and cotton amongst the fibre crops, are unfamiliar 

 to us in this country, but figure largely amongst the crops of the farmer 

 in the United States. The same applies more forcibly in the case of 

 the forage crops dealt with in the second of the three books mentioned 

 above. The hot summers enable a large number of tropical and sub- 

 tropical plants, such as ground-nuts, millets, &c, to be grown which 

 would not succeed in this country, but many of the crops mentioned 

 are common on English farms, although they are not so important 

 here as in the United States ; for instance, alfalfa (lucerne) is said 

 to be at the present time the third most important forage crop in 

 America, being exceeded only by timothy grass and red clover. 



The book of grasses has special reference to the economic 

 species of the United States. It is divided into two parts, the first 



