may be prepared by a cook of ordinary intelligence and even limited experience—probably a pretty large claim. Particular attention seems to have been given to the preparation of soups, fish, and entrées the reason assigned being that these branches of culinary art are too generally neglected in English cookery-books. The staple of the volume is, of course, its recipes, of which there are over two thousand, the several recipes used for the preparation of each dinner following immediately the bill of fare. In the index at the end of the volume every recipe is named, together with the number of the bill of fare to which it belongs.
The use of such a work where cookery is carried on in a somewhat ambitious and systematic way, and with some reference to its artistic refinements, is obvious enough, but it might undoubtedly prove helpful where the culinary processes are comparatively plain and simple. Perhaps it would be invidious to rank any one defect in ordinary cookery as worse than another, where they are all sufficiently conspicuous; but one of its most common defects is its distressing monotony, a few dishes being repeated over and over, with hardly an attempt at variation, while "canned products" enable the housekeeper to be exempt from the resources of the seasons, and to maintain the dreary monotony of dishes all the year round. Much of this is due to indifference and carelessness on the part of those who have kitchen operations in charge, and there are often dolorous complaints of the narrowness and poverty of the cuisine when the real difficulty is that the manager will not give sufficient thought to it. Such a cyclopædia of culinary variations as the present ought certainly to give relief in this respect, and, if it can not be fully carried out, it offers abundant suggestions from which a varied and attractive dietary can be realized.
A Contribution to the Geology of the Lead and Zinc Mining District of Cherokee County, Kansas. By Erasmus Haworth. Oskaloosa, Iowa. Pp. 47.
A careful special study of a particular ore-bearing district of limited extent, prepared as a thesis in connection with an application for the degree of Master of Science from the Kansas State University.
Report on the Cotton Production of the State of Georgia. By R. H. Loughridge, Ph. D., of Berkeley, California. Pp. 184, with Maps.
With the special report Dr. Loughridge gives a description of the general agricultural features of the State. He has been assisted in both parts of the work by A. R. McCutchen, for Northwest Georgia. Georgia ranks first among the States in the acreage (2,617,138) devoted to the cotton-crop, and second—standing next after Mississippi—in the number of bales produced. Cotton is the chief crop of the State, and occupies thirty-four per cent of the land under cultivation, and 44·4 acres per square mile of all the land of the State. The average yield is one third of a bale per acre. The cost of production, exclusive of commissions, freights, etc., is about eight cents a pound. The subject of an "intensive" system of culture has lately attracted much notice, and some enormous yields have been realized. The report is full of information bearing upon every agricultural aspect of the Slate and of its several counties.
Whirlwinds, Cyclones, and Tornadoes. By William Morris Davis. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Pp. 90. Price, 50 cents.
This is a condensed meteorological study proposing a theory of storms, which formed the basis of a course of lectures by the author at the Lowell Institute in Boston in 1883. It was first published in several numbers of "Science," and is now reprinted with slight alterations in more convenient form. It will be a welcome addition to our slender resources in this field of scientific literature.
Massachusetts State Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletins Nos. 7, 8, and 9. Pp. 12 each.
Bulletin No. 7, March, 1884, contains "Observations in regard to Insects injurious to the Apple," and "Experiments with Special Fertilizers in Fruit-Culture"; No. 8, April, "Fodder and Fodder Analyses, and "Valuation" and "Analyses" of Fertilizers; No. 9, May, "Notes upon Insects injurious to Farm and Garden Crops," and "Analyses of Fodder and Fertilizers."
