Half Acre Research Articles

Trapping Wild Turkeys in South Carolina

1. Nesting birds cannot be crowded; not more than one nesting pair to each half acre or acre of nesting territory has been found desirable. 2. Seney-bred geese move mainly along the Mississippi Flyway, but are of most importance to local hunters. 3. Birds produced on the refuge return to the area of origin following their southern migration, but further banding is needed to determine the percentage that returns.

Indian Hydro-electric Development

THE hydro-electric power scheme, known as the "Ganges Grid", was formally inaugurated on November 2, when Sir Harry Haig, Governor of the United Provinces, opened two new generating stations near Meerut, which are supplied with water-power from the Ganges Canal. The potentialities of the canal as a source of power were first investigated in 1920 in connexion with a series of local applications, and these gradually led to the development of the available resources on a larger scale, in order to extend the benefits of agricultural irrigation over a wide area. The exploitation of the "Grid" project has cost Rs. 343 lakhs (more than £2,500,000) and it now produces a gross output of 29,000 kilowatts. The energy is distributed by means of some four thousand miles of transmission lines to 1,600 substations scattered over the eight western districts of the United Provinces ; thence it is supplied to 88 towns for the purpose of pumping water from rivers or from State tube-wells for land irrigation. The power is also utilized to work agricultural machinery on private farms. Sir Harry opened at the same time the State tube-well irrigation system, consisting of considerably more than a thousand wells, the greater number of which are in operation and irrigate an area of a million and a half acres. The capital outlay on the system has been about Rs. 126 lakhs (£945,000). The execution of the "Grid" project has been in the hands of Sir William Stampe, formerly chief engineer of the Irrigation Department of the United Provinces.

A New Nature Reserve in New Zealand

THE property of Brooklands, New Plymouth, New Zealand, was handed over by the trustees of the late Mr. Newton King to the Borough of New Plymouth as a public reserve and officially opened by His Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, on March 10. It adjoins the beautiful Pukekara Park, and forms a natural extension of it. Together they comprise an area of more than 100 acres, forming a park second to none in the Dominion either in size or natural beauty. In addition to the actual property of Brooklands, the Trustees presented five acres of native bush nearby, and, to give access to it and make the whole one large reserve, Mr. T. C. List and Mr. C. A. Wilkinson gave an area of seven and a half acres. In his speech, Lord Bledisloe, after paying tribute to the late Mr. King, pointed out some of the many natural advantages which the Dominion possesses, and said that it is unique in the number, variety and grandeur of its many beauty spots within a relatively small area and in its incomparable native bush; he prophesied that eventually New Zealand will find its tourist traffic the main source of its wealth. While admiring the fine specimens of introduced trees, Lord Bledisloe gave a word of warning against the mixing of exotic trees with the native vegetation. All those who have the preservation of the native vegetation of the Empire at heart will feel grateful for the interest which Lord Bledisloe has in their efforts, and for the help he is giving them.

Sixth International Congress of Genetics

ACTIVE preparations are being made for the sixth International Congress of Genetics, to be held at Ithaca, New York, in August 1932. A series of quarterly bulletins of information has been issued and a number of committees has been at work for more than a year, A recent bulletin outlines the arrangements being made with regard to exhibits in connexion with the Congress. Several laboratory rooms will be used for cytological and other genetical exhibits, including recommended varieties of various crop plants. A new feature proposed is a genetical garden of three and a half acres, in which extensive exhibits of Zea, Nicotiana, Œnothera, Antirrhinum, Petunia, Brassica, and Melandrium will be grown from seeds sent by geneticists in all parts of the world who are investigating these genera. Exhibits illustrating fruit breeding will be shown at the Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, New York, and an extensive series concerning human genetics is being arranged in connexion with the Third International Congress of Eugenics, to be held in New York immediately before, on Aug. 21–23. A long series of animal exhibits, including domestic mammals and birds, fishes, insects, and molluscs, is also in preparation, the assembling of each group being in charge of a different person. Arrangements have been made for delegates to book passage on s.s. Westernland at a special rate of 200 dollars for the return voyage.

V.—The Roman House at Keynsham, Somerset

Keynsham is a village on the high road that runs between Bath and Bristol, and is distant from the latter city about four miles. In the year 1877 the then vicar and churchwardens of Keynsham, rinding the graveyard round the parish church incapable of either receiving any more burials or of being enlarged, purchased two and a half acres of ground to make a public cemetery. This was situated a quarter of a mile beyond the village, on the Bristol side, and was part of the fine stretch of meadow-land that borders the river Avon, being known as the Hams. Two mortuary chapels were built, adjoining one another, in the centre of the new cemetery, and the ground was thickly planted with trees. After the purchase of the land, the owner of a property adjoining it on its western side managed to get an embargo or restriction placed upon the use of the upper part for burials. The part so restricted was about a third of the original purchase. In 1908 the Parish Council, by the payment of a sum of money, had the restriction removed, but it was not until twelve years afterwards that the site was used for interments.

Disease of Birch Trees in Epping Forest and Elsewhere

IN Epping Forest, and in other districts around London, birch trees have been attacked during the late summer by a disease which causes them to die very rapidly. In a portion of the Forest known as Lord's Bushes, thirteen diseased and twenty-four completely dead trees were noted on June 10 within an area of about one and half acres.

Rural Education

THE Countess of Warwick and Prof. Meldola are entitled to all praise for their zeal in establishing the School of Science at Bigods, to which reference was made in your issue of October 5. There should, however, be some recognition of the similar work done by others in purely rural districts. At Bruton, a village in Somersetshire, the success of such a school has been quite phenomenal. Sexey's Trade School, as it is called, owes its inception to Mr. Henry Hobhouse, M.P., and was founded a few years ago out of the old endowments of Sexey's Hospital under a scheme of the Charity Commissioners, with aid from the Somerset County Council. Recently I had an opportunity of seeing the school, and could not sufficiently admire the excellence of what is done there. The buildings consist of a master's house, large schoolroom and lecture-rooms, well-equipped physics and chemical laboratories, wood and metal workshops, gymnasium, &c., with about two and a half acres of garden and playground attached. Besides instruction in the ordinary subjects of a higher primary or secondary school, the boys in the upper division (Classes II. to V.) are taught magnetism, electricity, chemistry, mechanics, manual work in cardboard, wood and metal, mensuration, French, botany and bookkeeping, and the instruction in technical subjects is throughout of a practical nature, being given in the garden, field, and workshops, as well as in the class-room. Outdoor lessons are given in land measuring. Visits are occasionally paid to farms in the neighbourhood to inspect the stock, implements, buildings and crops. Botanical walks are taken at intervals in order to study plants in their natural habits, and the boys are encouraged to make collections of botanical and other specimens.

Notice of a Number of Circular Stone Huts, surrounded by a Thick Stone Wall, enclosing one and half acres, called the Harefaulds, in Lauder Parish, Berwickshire

Notice of a Number of Circular Stone Huts, surrounded by a Thick Stone Wall, enclosing one and half acres, called the Harefaulds, in Lauder Parish, Berwickshire