Abstract
IT is not often that note-books are published, and it is well. Notes are in their nature fragmentary, and disposed towards brevity, often lapsing into crudity. They are a sort of skeleton of imparted knowledge, or at least rather anatomical than living, moving, and breathing information. The least and the most that may be reasonably expected of them is that they should be correct. The small book which has just been published by Messrs. Longmans does not commend itself to our judgment. It is crude, fragmentary, and almost inarticulate or unintelligible. It purports to contain a body of teaching and of facts, but it really consists of disjointed sentences, the meaning of which it is often very difficult to gather. The grammatical construction of the sentences is also fearful and wonderful. To give an idea of this latest contribution to agricultural science, we select the opening passage, page I, which reads as follows:—“The science of agriculture. Definitions and terms. Its definitions. Scientific truths taught by the practice of agriculture.” “The practice of the farm teaching the science. The laws of agricultural science best learnt when thus taught, and lead to improvements in the application of science to farm practice.” If this is a definition, much has been written in vain as to the difficulty of defining. It not only fails in definiteness, but is curiously involved, as well as untrue, for “the practice of the farm teaching the science” is an impossible and impracticable idea.
An Agricultural Note-Book.
By W. C. Taylor Aspatria Carlisle. (London: Longmans, 1885.)
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An Agricultural Note-Book . Nature 32, 623 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/032623a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/032623a0