Forest Protection, and the Tariff on Lumber. New York: Spirit of the Tress. Pp. 35.
The whole country is suffering to an increasing extent every year from the disastrous effects of the removal of the forests; and the best economical thought of the nation is busy with the problem of preventing further destruction, and repairing the damage that has already been done. Yet the Government, in imposing a tariff on foreign lumber, is offering a premium for further destruction and a direct encouragement to a continued course of ruin. Vigorous expressions of public opinion against this senseless policy have been made through various journals. The most important of the protests are collected in this pamphlet in aid of a fuller discussion and better understanding of the subject, and for the furtherance of measures for forest conservation.
Annual Report of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station for 1882. Address, New Haven, Conn. Pp. 114.
The station was removed on the 1st of September last, from the rooms of the Sheffield Scientific School to the property of five acres, which had been bought for it on Suburban Street, nearly a mile and five eighths from the City Hall of New Haven. The analyses were interrupted at that time, yet nearly the usual number of fertilizer analyses were made during the year, and of these a large proportion were on samples of complex composition. In connection with analyses of salt and saltpeter at the request of the Wilton Farmers' Club, the use of those substances as antiseptic or preservative material is discussed. The testing of milk has assumed much prominence; and in connection with it considerable information of value is furnished respecting the qualities of the specimens examined. In connection with the reports of the analyses of fertilizers, a review of the fertilizer market is given, with notices of the prices of its principal staples; and an interesting observation is reported of the value of marine mud as a fertilizer. The reports on the analyses of ensilage go to confirm, generally, the representations previously made of the value of that preparation. Interesting information and suggestions are given in connection with the seed-tests, of which twenty-four were made, mostly on sweet-corn and onion seed.
Seed-Breeding. By E. Lewis Sturtevant, M. D., South Framingham, Mass.
The art of breeding seeds consists in producing and selecting such variations as may be found desirable, and then of establishing them so that they shall be transmissible either in their present or in an improved condition, by seed. Breeding may be carried on through the act of selection for several generations under well-considered conditions of environment, by which the heredity of the seed in the desired direction shall be strengthened. Particular attention is given in this pamphlet to the means by which the best selections of seed corn may be developed, and established in character.
Report on the Development of the Mineral, Metallurgical, Agricultural, Pastoral, and other Resources of Colorado for 1881 and 1882. By J. Alden Smith, State Geologist. Denver, Col.: Chain & Hardy. Pp. 159.
The report claims that, by virtue of the largest returns, Colorado is the head of the mining states of the world as a producer of the precious metals. Its mines have also, for the past two years, furnished more than half the total lead product of the United States. The mining field is very large, embracing nearly all the mountain-ranges, and is extremely inviting to all persons interested in that pursuit. The report is well arranged, and gives in succession a history and description of the railroads of the State, accounts of the resources of the several counties, more general notices of certain mineral and agricultural staples and industries, and a systematic descriptive catalogue of the principal minerals in Colorado.
The Manual Training-School of Washington University, St. Louis, 1882-83. C. M. Woodward, Secretary. Pp. 45.
The managers of this school do not assume that in other schools there is too much intellectual and moral training, but that there is too little manual training for ordinary American boys. They exact close and thoughtful study with books, as well as with
