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Despite these comments, I enjoyed the book. It covers an area not treated in the average fertilizer text and, for this reason, would have value as a sup- plementary text or reference source.

PETER H. GRAHAM Department of Soil Science, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, U.S.A.

D R O U G H T C O N D ~ I O N S

Plant Production and Management under Drought Conditions. J.F. Stone and W.O. Willis (Editors). Developments in Agricultural and Managed- Forest Ecology, 12. Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam/Oxford/ New York/Tokyo, 1983. vii + 389 pp., Dfl. 175.00/US$74.50. ISBN 0-444-42214-5.

The book publishes the papers presented at a symposium held in Tulsa, OK, 4--6 October 1982, and is reprinted from the September 1983 issue of Agricultural Water Management (Vol. 7, nos. 1--3). It is a follow-up of the symposium held in 1973, published by Elsevier as Developments in Agricul- tural and Managed-Forest Ecology, 1 (Stone, 1975). The new book is divided into five parts: weather modification; soft, plant and atmosphere effects; plant breeding and genetics; physiology of stress; and remote sensing of plant stress and water use. The intended readership, therefore, are people in the fields of meteorology, climatology, soil science, plant physiology, plant breeding, plant genetics, and remote sensing. Most of the authors are from the Great Plains of the U.S.A. Two authors come from abroad, A. Blum from Israel and J.B. Passioura from Australia.

According to the preface, written by the editors, the aim of the symposi- um was to "focus on . . . crop management and production under drought conditions and to highlight research needs for future d e v e l o p m e n t . . . The intent was t o . . . present information for user orientation." Since the book is user-oriented, it is easy to read. There are few technical sections with equa- tions that take pause and thought to understand. Most of the chapters are reviews of the literature. References are up-to-date. The depth and extent of coverage depend upon the various authors. For example, the chapters by B.A. Kimball and S.B. Idso; W.E. Larson, J.B. Swan and M.J. Shaffer; B. Klepper, R.W. Rickman and H.M. Taylor; E.T. Kanemasu, J.L. Steiner, A.W. Biere, F.D. Worman and J.F. Stone have especially extensive references. There is relatively little overlap among the chapters. Several chapters present computer-based simulation models (e.g., see the chapters by B.J. Barfield and J.M. Norman; Larson et al.; Klepper et al.; W.R. Jordan, W.A. Dugas, Jr. and P.J. Shouse).

I feel that many of the topics discussed in the book are rapidly changing and that the information might soon be dated (e.g., the models; the ap- proaches used in interpreting remotely sensed data).

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Of most interest to me were the sections in which authors presented their own observations and ideas. For example, J.W. Schmidt, in his chapter on drought resistance and wheat breeding, gave personal experiences from field research (e.g., HiPlains is the only cultivar in his program known to roll its leaves under drought, p. 188). I also found valuable comments by W.R. Gardner and H.R. Gardner (e.g., "when the amount of available water is significantly less than the maximum useful amount, it is bet ter to distri- bute it non uniformly", p. 146), and by Passioura (e.g., "small seeds produce small vessels, and so do seeds, for a given seed size, that came from a drought- ed crop" , p. 277).

Salinity can be a problem under drought conditions. But the book does not discuss salinity, except only briefly in passing (e.g., see pp. 98, 103 and 147}. There is no subject, author, or taxonomic index, so the reader must record references to a certain topic, person, or plant. Also, the book does not discuss arguments against weather modification. The authors of Part 1 are optimistic about modifying weather to increase rain or suppress hail.

The book is of high quality, typical of the publications of Elsevier Science Publishers. There are few typographical errors. The figures, tables, and pictures are clear. The type is large and easy to read. All chapters have abstracts and most chapters have a summary or conclusion. There is no chapter summarizing the symposium. The authors, editors, and staff at Elsevier are to be congratulated for an excellent job in the product ion of the book. It is a fine synthesis of knowledge on drought.

M.B. KIRKHAM Evapotranspiration Laboratory

Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506 U.S.A.

REFERENCE

Stone, J.F. (Editor), 1975. Plant modification for More Efficient Water Use. Develop- ments in Agricultural and Managed-Forest Ecology, 1. Elsevier, Amsterdam/Oxford/ New York, x + 320 pp. Reprinted from Agric. Meteorol., Vol. 14, No. 1/2 (!974).

INTERCROPPING IN TROPICAL AGRICULTURE IN WEST AFRICA

Intercropping in Tropical Smallholder Agriculture wi th special Reference to West Africa. K.G. Steiner. German Agency for Technical Cooperat ion (GTZ), Eschborn, West Germany, 1982. 249 pp., 50 figs., 46 tables, 216 references, 16 appendices. Approx. DM41.50. ISBN 3-88085-176-X.

This book on intercropping is a literature survey, and is an a t tempt to reflect the current state of knowledge on potentials, resource use, inter- actions and constraints of this complex system practised widely in tradi- tional tropical and subtropical smaUholder agriculture. This volume corn-