Accessible Field Sports. By "Ubiqae." (Chapman and Hall.)—What does "Ubique
" mean by accessible ? Is he laughing at us ? We look through the table of contents and find such headings as "Trout Fishing on the Androscogan "; "Wild Fowl Shooting in Illinois ;" "On the Grand Prairie ; " "Salmon Fishing in Labrador ;" and so on. These sports are accessible to a man of fortune, or a parson with his three months' holiday, or a barrister whose practice was so bad or so good that he could take his whole vacation, or a college tutor, but not to ordinary men. And the one thing that did seem barely possible turned out on examination to be a cruel disappointment. "Trout fishing in Maine" might just be done,—ten days across the Atlantic, four more to.get to the scene of action, and as mach more for the return, and a holiday stretched to its fullest limit would still leave three or four weeks. But then, we arc calmly recommended to go "about the end of May!" Who on earth gets a holiday in May? Later on, we suppose, the trout will be "off the feed," and the black flies and mosquitoes most decidedly "on." " Ubique," however, has done his best to make his sport "accessible." We can, at all events, read about them ; and, if some wild freak of fortune should give us the chance, shall know where to go, In short, this is a very pleasant and readable book, though it is written, we are bound by our responsibility as literary critics to say, in very bad English. Here are two specimens :—" The chub came away, and, being now dead, combined with the rapidity of the water, trailed upon the surface ;" and "the security of the gallant craft was imminent."
Practice with Science (Longmans) is "a series of agricultural papers, dealing with various branches of scientific and systematic farming, and contributed in a great degree by the staff of that very valuable insti- tution, the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester. Professor Wrightson's experiments on wheat, barley, and grasses ; the paper of Professors Dyer and Church on phosphate of lime ; an eminently prac- tical essay on "The Feeding of Stock," by Mr. W. J. Edmonds; some very interesting tables of wages paid for task-work, which give one a more hopeful view of the condition of the agricultural poor than is commonly held ; and Mr. Constable's essay on "Rural Education and the Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture," are specially
deserving of notice.
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