Book reviews

AN AUSTRALIAN IN INDIA. By the Rt. Hon. R. G. Casey. 1947. (London: Hollis and Carter, p. 120.)

Arnold J. Toynbee: A STUDY OF HISTORY. Abridgment of Volumes I‐VI by D. C. Somervell, 1946. (Oxford University Press, pp. 617).

AUSTRALIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EVOLUTION OF PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT. By T. P. Fry, 1947. (University of Queensland Papers; Faculty of Law, Volume I, No. 1, pp. 21).

EDUCATION IN FASCIST ITALY. By L. Minio‐Paluello. 1946. (Oxford University Press, pp. xiv and 236).

THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATION IN DEPENDENT TERRITORIES. (Journal of Negro Education. The Yearbook Number XV. Published for The Bureau of Educational Research, Howard University, by The Howard University Press, Howard University, ‘Washington 1, D.C.) 1946. pp. 263–578.

COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION BY EUROPEAN POWERS. A series of papers read at King's College, London, 14th November to 12th December, 1946; by Jose de Almada, Robert Godding, Lord Hailey, A. M. Joekes, and H. Laurentie, 1947. (Royal Institute of International Affairs, pp. xiii +96).

THE LOST WAR: A Japanese Reporter's Inside Story. By Masuo Kato. 1946. (New York: Knopf, pp. 264).

THE FOREIGN POLICY OF SOVIET RUSSIA: Volume I. 1929–36. By Max Beloff. 1947. (Oxford University Press, pp. xii +261 and map).     

Locational decision-making on a Scottish estate prior to enclosure

Before the main burst of agricultural improvements, taking place in Scotland in the latter part of the eighteenth century, farming was carried out from fermtouns; these were groupings of farmsteadings and their fields. This paper seeks to determine the factors underlying the decisions that were taken in the location of the farmsteads and the different elements into which the agricultural land was divided. Isolated for examination are the distance-decay function and natural environmental factors, basically those of soil conditions. The importance of natural soil drainage conditions appears to decide the location of both intensively and extensively cultivated land while in many cases the farmsteadings also lie closest to the permanent arable land. Definite statements about the decision-making process cannot, however, be made due to our present rudimentary understanding of the stability of settlement sites and the true origins of the infield-outfield system.