Two Billion Acre Farm: An Informal History of American Agriculture by Robert WestHowardReview by: Conway ZirkleIsis, Vol. 37, No. 1/2 (May, 1947), pp. 111-112Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/226195 .

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Reviews III

importance of its vegetation is obvious. How de- pendent we are upon Latin American plants can be indicated by merely listing the categories in which the author classifies them, i.e., food plants both native and introduced, forage, spices and flavors, perfumes, beverages both stimulants and narcotics, pharmaceutical plants, insecticides, oil plants, vege- table waxes, fiber plants, timbers, fuels, vegetable dyes, tanning materials and, finally, the latex or rubber plants.

The final introductory chapter, Historical Sketch, by Dr. F. W. Pennell, is naturally the most inter- esting to historians of science. We are beginning to realize what a tremendous impact the American plants made on the Old World and how they sup- plemented and, in part, superseded the domestic plants of Eurasian agriculture. The value of the new plants was quickly realized by the Spaniards and Spain sent some of her leading naturalists to her new empire. The result was a number of ex- cellent botanical explorations and collections and some of the earlier published works on America, the sixteenth and seventeenth century natural his- tories, are indispensable sources for the history of botany. Dr. Pennell's brief abstracts of the primary sources down to I850 (he cites only the outstanding work from 1850 to the present) is very inclusive, almost complete. His chapter is an achievement in concentrating information and in evaluating a wealth of data. He has succeeded in locating a great many sources which are not at all well known but why, oh why, did he omit Oviedo y Valdez (1526,

1535) and begin his listing of the published works with Monardes (1569)?

The next thirty-five chapters deal with regional descriptions and are concerned with the local floras, plant resources, vegetation and agriculture of the individual Latin American countries. The informa- tion is useful and important but of a local nature. These specialized chapters are followed by twenty- three chapters of a more general nature which cover such topics as climatology, geology, soils, plant pathology, forestry, ethnobotany and paleobotany of the whole region of Central and South America. Certain economic plants which transcend individual countries such as rubber plants, cinchona and tropi- cal fruits are also treated in this section. There are even chapters on the botanical periodicals, tropical plant research foundations, agricultural scholarships and international relations.

Attention should be called to the special supple- ment, Plant breeding, genetics and cytology in Latin America by Dr. C. A. Krug. When we consider how abject the Latin countries in Europe

are in these fields, the American progress is note- worthy. The Latin American countries are doing their full share of preserving and augmenting our European cultural heritage, a task in which wounded Europe needs all of the help she can get.

Part II consists of twenty chapters of regional descriptions, five of more general interest and a special supplement by the Editor in which the plant science institutions, stations, museums, gardens, societies and commissions in Central and South America are listed.

In a work of the scope of Plants and plant science in Latin America there is bound to be a certain amount of repetition and irregularity. All articles by the eighty-five contributing authors are not of equal merit. The defects, however, seem to be completely unimportant. When we consider that the contributors are scattered throughout two con- tinents and that mail and travel is curtailed by war, we can appreciate some of the problems of the editor. That he has produced a most interesting, important and (incidentally) beautifully illustrated work with truly international cooperation is a real achievement. Obviously he is not only a man of good will but also a first rate diplomat.

Conway Zirkle

ROBERT WEST HOWARD: Two billion acre farm: A4n informal history of American agri- culture. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1945. $2.50.

The author is described as a newspaperman who has a working knowledge of agriculture. He was an associate editor of the Farm Journal and Farmer's TWVife and is now the editor of Pathfinder. The blurb on the dust cover states that this informal history is "written with all the pace and drama of a novel." Perhaps, if anyone wishes to learn how much "informality" a history can achieve he should read this book, for it very definitely is not wearing a white tie. In fact, it is not even wearing a collar. The question should also be raised as to how much dramatic imagination and fiction we should tolerate in our histories.

Errors of fact and of interpretation are numerous and range from trivialities to real boners. Perhaps the general inaccuracy of the work can be illustrated most economically by citing a sample of these mis- takes chosen more or less at random.

"By 1700, when there were fewer than 50,000 whites between Maine and Georgia . . ." (p. i8). "There were two million native-born Americans in the English colonies in 1750" (p. 29). Let not page 29 know what

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I12 Reviews

is on page I 8! ". . . the virus disease called 'black rust' killed off the crops [of wheat] in Massachusetts . (p. 22). This is the first time that the reviewer has ever found Puccinia graminins labeled a virus Liebig proved to the London Academy that plants derive their nourishment from the nitrogen and carbon dioxide of the air and . . ." (p. 65). "Blackridge County, Vir- ginia" (p. 74) for Rockbridge County. And finally ". . . as the spring rain stirs chlorophyll in the roots of the sleeping grass" (p. 39).

As the listing of such errors as the above could be continued indefinitely, the informality seems to be a bit excessive.

In view of the paper shortage the question could well be asked as to why such a book should be pub- lished and why it should be noticed by Isis. Actually the work is not entirely without merit. It is well and clearly written and is filled with odd and in- teresting facts, which, of course, should be verified before they are used. It does give a panorama of the settlement of the United States and of the agri- cultural problems of the early settlers and later frontiersmen. It also shows how our past appears to one editor of an agricultural journal and how at least one spokesman for the farm block views the present agricultural problems.

The tone of the work is that of propaganda al- though the author does not seem to be advocating anything in particular. He certainly offers us no panacea. The work is also unlike propaganda in that the errors it contains seem to have been included unintentionally.

If the Two billion acre farm had been issued as a novel, as the fictitious account of the colonization of an imaginary planet, its artistic merit would be obvious. It has all of the oversimplifications and dramatic posturings which we enjoy in our political cartoons and admire in our better murals. Produced by Hollywood or even if filmed by the Department of Agriculture it would practically escape criticism. Perhaps the author merely chose the wrong art form.

Conway Zirkle

F. J. COLE: a History of Comparative Anatomy. From Aristotle to the Eighteenth Century. viii+ 524 pp. London and New York, Macmillan, 1944. $7.00.

This book is mis-titled. It is not a history of com- parative anatomy, but an account rather of the out- standing works of the masters in that subject. There already exists an admirable history of the subject, namely Professor J. CHAINE'S Histoire de Panatomie

comparative (Bordeaux, I925), but this is not a work on a large enough scale, and certainly Pro- fessor COLE'S is far from being so. An adequate his- tory of comparative anatomy remains to be written. Professor COLE had originally intended to write an exhaustive history of zoological discovery, but war- time conditions in England rendered the writing of such a work impractical, and so abandoning "the purpose and industry of years" Professor COLE undertook "the less formidable task of re-studying the masters themselves, together with the develop- ments to which their works had given rise." That Professor COLE was prevented from writing the larger work must be considered one of the minor tragedies of the war, for there are few men alive today who could equal his knowledge, his personal library in the history of zoology, and his ability to write. It is much to be hoped, in view of all the present portents, that he has already begun to write the more exhaustive work.

The present volume might more properly have been called "Masters of Comparative Anatomy: From ARISTOTLE to the End of the Seventeenth Century;" with its present title it is flying under false colors. We are led to assume that the author considers the work to be a history of the subject, and that in it he considers the historical relations of the subject and the developments to which the works of both the little and the great masters in it gave rise. Upon a very careful reading I cannot find that the work is in any sense a history or that the author makes more than the most cursory at- tempt to relate the work of one man to another or to his times. No attempt is made at integration, and none whatever at unravelling the growth and de- velopment of the subject.

The accounts of the work of the masters them- selves are good, though they fail to convey a well- rounded picture of either the men or their works. As introductions to the work of the great compara- tive anatomists these accounts should supply a long- felt want. This is especially true of the last two-thirds of the book in which Professor COLE deals with the "Academies and Societies: The Anatomy Lesson," and "The Anatomical Museum." Most students of the biological sciences at one time or another en- counter a reference to "the Parisians" without ever learning who "the Parisians" might have been. Fre- quently there is no one in the department to whom one can turn for an answer, and the reference books remain silent. On "the Parisians" and the academi- cians Professor COLE now throws the necessary light, and this illumination will put many students in his debt. The two hundred figures which illustrate the

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