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Abstract

THE raison d' être of this little volume is to be found in its “tail,” where are reproduced the questions set in the Science and Art Department Examinations in the Principles of Agriculture during the last eleven years. The title-page ought to state, but it does not, that this is a revised edition of a book that was published some years ago. This fact is only discoverable from the preface. The original edition was arranged in three parts, whilst the current edition is in four parts. The added part is somewhat of a jumble, inasmuch as it is supplementary of each of the first three parts. The scheme of the book is not apparent from the list of contents, and this omission results in confusion. Whilst, however, the arrangement of the book is bad, the matter is good. In skilful hands, indeed, the material which is here accumulated might have been very attractively presented. At p. 132, a dozen pages are commenced on the pests of the farm, whilst another dozen pages devoted to the same subject begin on p. 180. At p. 71, the reader enters upon 30 pages about manures, and at p. 167 he gets a further dozen pages also upon manures. And so on.

Principles of Agriculture.

Edited by R. P. Wright (London: Blackie and Son, 1891.)