How to get on in the World, as demonstrated by the Life and Language of William Cobbett: to which is added Cobbett's English Grammar, with Notes. By Robert Waters, Teacher of Language and Literature in the Hoboken (N. J.) Academy. New York: James W.Pratt. Pp.551. Price, $1.75.
The literary style of Cobbett receives in this book about equal attention with the incidents and achievements of his life. Although he is not often named among the masters of English that students of rhetoric are advised to read, and his grammar has been allowed to go out of print, yet the author is able to quote several good judges who agree with him in a high rating of Cobbett's style. Many extracts from Cobbett's writings are given, partly as specimens of his English, and partly as affording a better picture of the man than description could give. The author has secured for his estimate of the character of Cobbett the presumption of correctness, in that he mentions and condemns Cobbett's faults as unhesitatingly as he praises his virtues. The grammar, which is in the form of letters to a son, occupies about half the volume.
French Forest Ordinance of 1669; with Historical Sketch of Previous Treatment of Forests in France. Compiled and translated by John Croumbie Brown, LL. D. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd. Pp. 150.
Dr. Brown was formerly Colonial Botanist at the Cape of Good Hope, and had his attention particularly directed to the subject of forestry by observation of the evils which had been brought upon South Africa by the reckless destruction of its woods. He has since become engaged in a kind of philanthropic work of publishing at his own risk books enforcing the necessity of renewing or preserving forests, and explaining the manner in which these objects are to be accomplished; the proceeds of one book, if there be any, being applied to the getting out of another in the series. The present volume embodies a translation in full of the famous ordinance from which it derives its name a statute which the author claims has exercised a deeper, more extended, and more prolonged influence on the forest economy of Europe than has any other work known to him. As introductory to it, are given notices of the treatment of forests in France in prehistoric times; of the incursion of the Normans and the changes introduced by them; of the administration of the forests of France in the first half of the seventeenth century, and the abuses and devastation of forests which followed; of the method of exploitation then practiced—jardinage, or the system of felling a selected tree here and there, and leaving the others standing; of the method of tire et aire—or "cut and come again"; of the method of compartiments—or the division of the wood into equivalent instead of equal portions, as in the former system, each of which is to be cut in its order in a regular succession of years; and explanations of some of the old technical terms used in the ordinance.
The Pine Moth of Nantucket (Retinia Frutrana). By Samuel H. Scudder. Boston: A. Williams & Co. Pp. 22, with Plate.
The pines on the Island of Nantucket, set out some twenty or thirty years ago, are fast dying in large numbers from some cause hitherto unknown. Mr. Scudder began his investigations as to the cause of the destruction in 1876, and found it at the extreme tips of the living twigs, in the shape of a moth-larva, which is hatched out in the bud and eats its way to the heart, sapping the life of the needles, one by one, as it goes downward. As the insects are numerous and prolific they soon take possession of the tree and eat away its life. The present monograph gives an account of the insect and its life-history, as well as descriptions of its relatives, and suggestions as to the way of contending with it.
A Book about Roses. How to grow and show them. By S. Reynolds Hale. New York: William S. Gottsberger. Pp. 326.
The author has been a successful grower and exhibitor of roses, and essays in this book to tell how he has gained his success. With considerable copiousness of words and numerous digressions, all of which go to make his story lively and pleasant, he gives a great deal of information of practical value on all matters pertaining to the cultivation of good roses.
