A YEAR AND A DAY.
A Year and a Day. By Olive Christian Malvery (Mrs. Archi- bald Mackirdy). (Hutchinson and Co. 6s.)—From the literary point of view Mrs. Maekirdy's book, A Year and a Day, must be pronounced the most disjointed production that it is possible to imagine. Not only is each chapter separate in itself, so that the reader does not know whether he is accompanying Mrs. Mackirdy as a tourist on her travels or considering the social questions of the day, but many even of the chapters themselves do not succeed in being connected wholes. The most interesting parts of the book are the author's accounts of the various business houses which she inspected, not officially, but privately, and of the admirable methods with which their work is carried on. No one can fail to learn without great pleasure that such a number of business firms in England are conducted on excellent lines, and Mrs. Mackirdy has given great prominence to the useful truth that in these matters honesty is the best policy, and that the firms she praises are eminently successful. A word of warning from experience may be given as to the practicability of goat farming as a paying profession for women. Any one taking up this work would have to make very sure of the situation and soil of the farm. There are certain situations in which the business would be an inevitable failure, as goats can stand neither cold nor damp. Mrs. Mackirdy may be warned also against the idyllic plan of having a goat farm near a garden. The present writer has seen a young goat clear a spiked fence four-feet-six high at one bound, and if a goat were to jump in this athletic manner into a garden one even- ing the unfortunate owner would find no green vegetables and very few flowers left next morning.
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