A simple Treatise on the Single Pole System, or How Grapes are Cultivated in the Upper Rhine Valley. By A. N. Hofer, McGregor, Iowa. Pp. 32. This little volume comes from the pen of a grower who practices that of which he writes. This system of training to a single pole has been presented many times, but this is one of the few instances in which the describer has actually practiced the method to a commercial extent in America. The essence of the whole system is the securing of many roots and a small top, and the result cannot be otherwise than good; but whether the method will pay in the average vineyard is a question. For amateur cultivation, the method is certainly among the best. The book has common faults of composition, but the essential points are for the most part clearly made. A most interesting and amusing feature, for this day, is a long discussion of the influences of the planets upon grape culture. This feature possesses some value inasmuch as it is a record of superstitions of the Rhine, but it is singular to read of them as applied to America; one thinks himself a century or two younger.

Wood's Lessons In Botany.

Economic Fungi.