The Soil of the Farm. By John Scott and J.
C. Morton. (Brad- bury, Agnew, and Co.)—This small volume belongs to the" Handbook of the Farm Series," and is the fourth instalment of the whole num- ber of six which will constitute the complete set. We cannot say that this book represents, oven to the extent which the narrow limits imposed upon the authors would have allowed, the present state of our knowledge of the soil. In fact, the title is misleading. These pages give us very little information about the soil. They say, in- deed, a good deal, and that with the obvious directness derived from practical knowledge, of the tillage of the soil, its treatment, and its uses. But the story of the formation of soils ; the description of different soils, and of their physical and chemical properties ; the account of the constituents of soils, and the explanations which are needed to understand the rationale of each of the various opera- tions to which soils may be submitted,—all these things are not even seriously discussed in the book before us. Much of the little that is here said on these matters is obsolete or imperfect in form, while positive mistakes are not infrequent. This volume suffers much by comparison with Mr. Warington's sound and useful "Chemistry of the Farm," a book belonging to the same series. Instead, however, of supplementing that work by developing more fully the treatment of the subject of the soil, the book under review refers its readers to Mr. Warington's volume, in which the chemistry and physics of the soil were necessarily very briefly discussed.
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