BOOK REVIEWS. 



351 



" An American Fruit Farm : its Selection, Management for Profit 

 and Pleasure." By Francis Newton Thorpe. 8vo. 348 pp. (Putnam's 

 Sons, New York.) $2.50 net. 



The literature of the flower garden has long been under the sway 

 of the amiable scribe, who, linking his arm in yours, gently leads you 

 into his garden. There is no resisting this affectionate pressure, and 

 for a short time flowers are all the subject of the discourse. But soon 

 a horrid fear assails you : a fear that the garden is only a pretext, and 

 that you are presently to act as an auditor to moralizings on every 

 subject, from the right ordering of husbands and children to the exact 

 position of Sologub in Russian literature. 



In the fruit garden, however, comparative safety is found. Pomo- 

 logical authors have generally been of the downright sort who stick 

 to the subject and leave the problems of the universe and the exhibition 

 of their own culture to more suitable occasions. Upon opening the 

 work now under consideration we see that the sanctuary has been 

 invaded. The first chapter-heading alone awakens apprehension. 

 " Time and the Tree ! " A closer study shows this fear to be only 

 too well founded, and an ambling pursuit of the obvious is carried on 

 over some 342 pages. " Time seats the tree in dignity and power " : 

 " Yet Time is never weary and the tree is ever growing " : these will 

 serve as a sample of the author's quality in this direction. In the 

 chapter on " Selecting a Farm " the author takes many pages to impress 

 upon us that proximity to a market is desirable ; and in his further 

 remarks upon planting, cultivation, and the migration of the children 

 from the old homestead the same detailed method is adopted. 



There is much of interest in the work, particularly the author's 

 account of the happy valley by Lake Erie where his farm is situated ; 

 but few there will be who have the time or inclination to disentangle 

 formulae for spraying from the scraps of Cato, Homer, and misquota- 

 tions of Shakespeare among which they are embedded. 



The book is well printed and illustrated with photographs of laden 

 trees and cultural operations, and the last shows, we imagine, a portrait 

 of the author seated on his verandah with his fruit lands stretching to 

 Lake Erie, and two volumes, Cato and Homer we feel convinced, on a 

 table conveniently to hand. 



No longer can we feel sure that fruit books will deal only with fruits. 

 With a sigh we turn from our former sanctuary and pass into the 

 vegetable garden. 



" The Well-considered Garden." By Mrs. Francis King. 8vo. 

 290 pp. (Scribner, New York. 1915.) $2.00 net. 



Though this book is an embodiment, for American gardeners, of 

 the practices of colour-scheming we generally associate with Miss 

 JekylTs writings, yet it has several points of attraction for English 

 readers. It teaches us the present condition of gardening in the 

 Northern United States ; flatters our feelings by its evidences of how 



