REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES 91 
The History of Village Improvement in the United States. Hy Warren 11 . 
Manning. Reprinted from The Craftsman, February, 1904. 
This pamphlet deals in an historical manner with the question of parks, 
forests and open spaces, referring chiefly to the last half century. “ During this 
same period,” writes the author, “ a broader and deeper interest in forestry and 
tree-planting was stimulated, especially in the Middle West, by such men as 
John A. Warder, of Ohio, and Governor [. Sterling Morton, of Nebraska, at 
whose suggestion Arbor Day was first observed in his State, and there officially 
recognised in 1872. By the observance of this day a multitude of school children 
and their parents have become interested in tree-planting on home and school 
grounds. . . . Little do we appreciate to what Dr. Warder’s forestry move- 
ment has led in the West. It has, by its encouragement of homestead plantations, 
greatly modified the land.scape of the vast central prairie region of our continent. 
What was an endless and monotonous sea of grass is now a great procession of 
ever-changing vistas between groups of trees. It has resulted in our Governments 
establishing fifty-three reservations containing sixty-two million acres of public 
forests managed by an efficient department, in establishing .State forest commis- 
sions and reservations, in the formation of national. State and local forestry- 
associations, many of which give quite as much attention to the forest as an 
element of beauty in landscape and to the preservation of roadside growth and 
encouragement of public and private tree-planting for beauty alone, as they do to 
the economic problems.” 
Society for the Protection of Birds : Report for 1903. 
In The iVestern Daily Press for ^iarch 28, a correspondent a.sks, “Why 
cannot we have an Arbor Day in Kngland ?” The pioneer work in this direction, 
undertaken by the Society for the I’rotection of Birds, is thus not yet as widely 
known as it should be. The annual report shows steady work at the endless 
millinery question and in other matters, and includes a list of all subscriptions from 
Associates. We should hardly think that the Society gains much from those who 
subscribe a shilling and receive the Annual Report with their names printed in it 
and notices of all General Meetings. The Report also contains an address on 
Bird and Tree Day, by Canon Rawnsley. We note with interest that the 
Society is applying for a Royal Charter ; and with regret that the Watchers’ 
Fund has not met with the support desirable for extended efficiency. 
Report of the Rugby School Natural History Society for 1903. 
This report shows that the Society continues, after thirty-seven years, to do 
good work. An excellent paper entitled “ Notes on British Thrushes,” by the 
Curator, J. C. F. Fryer, illusfrated by three plates, from sketches by the author, 
is included in the Report. We would suggest that the members of the Photo- 
graphic Section should place their cameras at the disposal of the members of 
other sections, photographing the geological exposures, or even rare fossils, the 
birds’ nests, the growing plants, or the architectural relics that interest them, 
some of which may then be usefully reproduced in the Report. 
Epsom College Natural History Society: Report for 1903. No. 15. Messrs. 
Andrews, Epsom. Price is. fid. 
Truly a model report ! Lists of plants observed, with dates of first blooms 
seen ; of birds, with dates when first seen or heard, when nest w-as built, egg 
laid, or young hatched ; of lepidoptera, with dates of observation ; and of local 
mosses ; with a full weather report, omitting wind, perhaps as too continuous, 
and sunshine, perhaps because too rare, at least in 1903 ; and the weights and 
measures of 234 boys, give it a permanent value for reference. It is, moreover, 
illustrated with ten excellent photographs, six of which are local. 
Report of the Hampstead Scientific Society for 1903. Price 3d. 
Though the Society undoubtedly sustained a serious loss in Mr. Basil Martin’s 
departure from London, we are glad to see from the piesent annual report, 
containing abstracts of a varied series of lectures and a record of the Proceedings 
of the Astronomical, Natural History and Photographic Sections, that its scientific 
work shows no falling off. Though this has been accomplished at a financial loss, 
the deficit on the year’s accounts is less than in 1902. 
