A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC

Essays -- slight and charming enough- which range from the descriptive to the philosophical, and which would have very limited appeal to those who enjoy random bits of nature. The book falls into three sections:- Part I- the Almanac of a week-end refuge on a Wisconsin farm, round the seasons; II- sketches taking issue with conservation as it is practised, based on some forty years of observation; III- his creed of conservation, as an extension of ethics from people to land. The second section expands the regional interest from the Wisconsin locale of the first section, to the far cry of Mexico to Manitoba. He pulls no punches in his attack on the degeneration of sports, with bigger and better gadgets, in his opinion that most conservation is local alleviation, and that land health is better than land doctoring. But unfortunately, the general flavor of his writing, and the appearance of the book, with its charming sketches by Charles W. Schwartz, do not give one a sense of actually challenging the reader.