volume of the series is an atlas of two hundred and fifty-five plates.
A Treatise on Co-operative Savings and Loan Associations. By Seymour Dexter. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 299.
The author has aimed, in preparing this treatise, to furnish information concerning the class of associations described in the title, in a form in which it shall be accessible to all desiring it; to explain clearly the principles on which the typical association is founded; to describe variations from the type; to furnish a complete and safe guide to persons wishing to engage in such associations; to correct certain false notions concerning some matters of financial management in them; and to publish the best statutes of the several States concerning them, recommending particularly the New York act of 1887 and the laws of Massachusetts. While co-operation has existed under various forms and for many purposes, the efforts in the special shape considered in this book have been more uniformly successful than in any other. The associations formed for the purpose have had various names—building and loan associations, building associations, mutual savings and loan associations, homestead aid associations or co-operative banks. The name given them by Mr. Dexter includes all the others, and is believed to describe them more accurately than any other name. The benefits derived from them are all included under the general description that they encourage savings. This they do by affording a safe place of deposit, convenient, but out of the reach of pressing temptations to spend; that the ultimate object of the saving, to provide a home, is made practicable through them; that through them an opening is offered for the investment of small sums that might otherwise be frittered away; and that they afford convenient facilities to their members wishing to negotiate loans. A chapter is devoted to the delineation of the typical association; another chapter to a sketch of the growth and spread of the organizations and accounts of their conditions in the several States—which is imperfect as a history because it has been impossible as yet to get full information on the subject. The development of the scheme on which the associations are conducted is reviewed, with the modifications it has undergone, and "the best scheme" is determined; and this review is followed by directions for the organization of an association under the New York act of 1887, and also under that of 1851, and by instructions in the keeping of the association's accounts—this being, in fact, the exposition of a particular system of bookkeeping. In the appendix: are given the laws of New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Ohio respecting the associations, and forms for a constitution and the papers required in the transaction of their business. The book supplies satisfactory information on a subject in which there is wide-spread interest, and answers well to the familiar description that it responds to a want of the times.
Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Arkansas for 1888. Vol. I. By John C. Branner, State Geologist. Little Rock: Press Printing Company.
Operations under the present survey were begun in 1887. When the first report was made, they had been carried on for so short a time that only a meager statement could be published; hence the result of most of the work that has been done from the beginning will be given in the four volumes of the current report. The present volume, after a brief general account of the work done during the year, is occupied with the report of Dr. T. B. Comstock, assistant geologist, upon his preliminary examination of the mineral resources of the western central part of Arkansas, with especial reference to the production of the precious metals. The second volume will give the results of the combined work of the United States Geological Survey, and the Geological Survey of Arkansas, upon the Mesozoic geology of the State. The third volume will relate to the coal regions; and the fourth volume will contain miscellaneous and local reports. Dr. Comstock's work, as described in the present volume, relates to Pulaski, Saline, Hot Spring, Garland, Montgomery, Polk, and Scott Counties, and parts of Yell, Pike, Howard, Sevier, and Franklin Counties. The observations recorded were made in 1887 and 1888 in all the important places in the State where mining or prospecting for gold and
