Irrigation and Drainage. By Professor A. H. King, Wisconsin University.
(Macmillan and Co. 6s.)—Irrigation is of far more importance to our good cousins across the Atlantic than it is to us, yet the most striking example of irrigation known is, perhaps, that of the Craigentinny Meadows, outside Edinburgh. But it is to the dry continental areas of the Western United States that irrigation is so valuable. Maize produces extraordinary crops under the stimulus of water, and in California the business of distributing water is managed with as much care as that of our own water companies and with more economy. A fact which is somewhat distressing to the Kansas and Nebraska farmers is the superiority of crops grown in Washington, where no rain falls practically in the growing season, to those of their own States, where most of the rain falls between April and September ! It is the saturation of the soil whioh enables the more western crops to mature satisfactorily. There are numerous illustrations and diagrams in this really extremely interesting and valuable text- book which will help to do away with many wrong ideas. The
gridiron" plan of draining a field, for instance, is seen to be far more economical than the " herring-bone."
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