Geographical Record

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Geographical RecordSource: Geographical Review, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Oct., 1948), pp. 663-677Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/211454 .

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GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD

EUROPE

THE NEW FOREST. Among English woodlands none has a more romantic interest than the New Forest, "a miraculous survival ofpre-Norman England." Within the perambulation of the Forest are 92,365 acres-heath and moorland interspersed with blocks of woodland broken by open tracks and glades. All parts are in use, for sport and recreation, for grazing, for timber. In its early days the Forest was a royal hunt preserve; from the seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth it supplied timber for the Navy. In World War I the 20,000 acres of woodland furnished 8 million cubic feet of timber; in World War II, I212 million; and there is still a growing stock of more than o0 million cubic feet. The interests of the various uses and users naturally conflict. The problem they create in "adjusting the Forest to moder

requirements" is discussed in the "Report of the New Forest Committee [of the Forestry Commission]" (Cmd. 7245, I947). The provident forester would plant conifers; the lover of the amenities wants the native hardwoods (the first true conifer, the Scots pine, was not introduced until I776). The tourist would like greater accessibility, the naturalist reserves for the preservation of the rare species of plants and animals that still survive. The grazers have their rights, but what of the rights of the gypsies? The rapid growth of communities within the New Forest Rural District threatens encroachment. There are problems aplenty.

POSTWAR CONDITIONS IN THE RUHR. The zoning of occupied Germany placed the Ruhr under British administration. On July I, 1945, the North German Coal Control Commission was given the responsibility of reviving Europe's greatest industrial area. Coal production was then at an all-time low-an output of 30,000 tons a day, as compared with the more than 400,000 tons produced daily before the war. Mines representing 35 per cent of the prewar capacity were badly damaged, and up to July, 1947, mines representing io per cent of that capacity were still unworkable. Mining equipment was in dire need of repair and replacement. River, canal, rail, and highway transportation lines likewise needed extensive repairs and replacement of equipment ("Problems of the Ruhr," G476, British Information Services, Washington, D. C., July 22, I947). Industrial output, however, was at a virtual standstill, so that the necessary repairs and replacements could not be made. Only about one-fourth of the prewar labor supply of 400,000 miners was available, and their productivity was seriously curtailed by the food and housing shortages (B[ritish] I[nformation] S[ervices] Notes, Vol. 2, No. 2I, New York, Oct. I7, I947, p. 99).

In spite of these problems, the British were expected to allocate substantial amounts ot Ruhr coal for the rehabilitation of Europe. In I937, of a total coal production of I28 million metric tons, about 49 million tons stayed in the Ruhr, 40 million tons were shipped to other parts of Germany, and the remaining 40 million were sent outside Germany (C. D. Harris: The Ruhr Coal-Mining District, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 36, I946, pp. I94-22I). Today demands of the European coal-importing countries have increased: France is reported to need 30 million tons of imported coal annually, and Italy I2 million tons. Because of the loss of the Silesian fields to the Russian sphere and the low British domestic production, the Ruhr was expected to supply nearly all this coal. But more coal was needed in the region itself, to make possible the production of equipment that in turn would facilitate increased coal production. The commission also undertook an improvement of the housing situation



THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

- I 948

FIGS. I-4

in order to recruit new workers, and the labor force was increased to 285,000 by November, I947. Miners' rations (exclusive of bonus rations) were maintained at approximately twice the normal ration of I500 calories per person per day. Transportation lines were repaired and improved to a degree, though they are still inadequate.

As a result of the work of the commission, Ruhr coal production increased from a monthly output of 1,841,000 tons in July, 1945, to 6,707,000 tons in November, 1947

(monthly average, 1933-1938: 10,227,000 tons). Coal exports were raised from the rela-

tively low figure of 3.8 million tons in I945 to 8.2 million tons in 1947 (Figs. 2-4). The second and related concern of the British administrators was the raising of Ruhr

pig-iron and steel production. Before World War II the Ruhr produced 11 million tons of pig iron and 14 million tons of steel. At the end of the war the region had a productive capacity of about o1.5 million tons of steel (W. N. Hadsel: The Ruhr: Object of Allied Rivalries, Foreign Policy Repts., Vol. 22, 1946-1947, pp. 158-I67). However, when the

British took over in 1945, actual steel output was nil. By November, 1947, they had pushed

664



GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD

steel production up to three million tons annually-but the minimum need for restoration of prewar coal production alone was two million tons.

The slow progress in re-establishing the industrial output of the Ruhr can be attributed in large measure to fear of its war potential. This sentiment was inherent in the Level of

Industry Plan of 1946, which set the steel-producing capacity of western Germany at seven million ingot tons, annual production not to exceed 5.8 million tons ("United States Eco- nomic Policy toward Germany," U. S. Dept. of State Publ. 2630; European Ser. 15, n. d.,

p. I34). On August 29, 1947, a new level-of-industry plan for "Bizonia" went into effect. This plan raised the capacity figure to 12 million tons and annual production to not more than 10.7 million tons (Economic Data on Potsdam Germany: Special Report of the Military Governor, September, 1947, Office of Military Government [U. S.], Berlin, p. 37). It is

expected that under this new quota enough steel can be produced to provide for necessary repairs and replacements within the Ruhr and to enable the region to export in time.

In November, I947, Ruhr management was transferred to the Germans, under Anglo- American supervision. British and American policy aimed to increase still more the coal and steel production of the Ruhr, to make possible the fulfillment of reparation payments and aid substantially in the European Recovery Program.

Under the German and Bizonal agencies production of hard coal in the Ruhr increased, but not as rapidly and consistently as was hoped. Production, for instance, was down in January, I948; up in March; down in April when the average daily production of coal

dropped from 270,000 tons to 250,000 tons. Mine administrators stressed the immediate need of more and newer equipment (The Economist, Vol. 154, 1948, pp. 875-876). New incentives, the installation of new equipment, and the larger labor force (more than 400,000 by July, 1948) contributed to a significant increase in the first week of August: on August 3, 279,480 tons and on the next four days 279,582 tons, 281,949 tons, 282,054 tons, and 282,537 tons (War Department, Office of the Chief of Staff).

Steel firms in Bizonia reached new postwar peaks of production in July, when 457,623 tons were turned out, almost 8o,ooo tons more than in June. Larger and more regular coal deliveries, new blast furnaces, and currency reform (which improved the labor supply and reduced absenteeism) were pointed out as primary factors responsible for the increased steel production (War Department, Office of the Chief of Staff).-ILEANE OBERT

THE ECONOMY OF THE RUHR AND OF THE SAAR. There is no shortage of information on economic conditions in Germany before World War II. Some industrial secrets were withheld from the outside world by the Nazi regime, but most phases of the economy were thoroughly described and analyzed by competent German and non-German scholars-one work a six-volume monograph with a total of nearly 6500 pages. The economy of the Reich during the war and postwar years is not so well known, at least outside Germany; and there is a real need for concise, factual summaries of the geographic and economic conditions. Two recent publications of the Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques of the French Ministry of National Economy are evidently intended to meet such a need. "L'Economie de la Ruhr" (Etudes et Documents, Ser. D-i, Allemagne-i, 1947) and "L'Economie de la Sarre" (Ser. D-2, 1947) are volumes of 82 and 147 pages re- spectively.

The economic area popularly referred to as "the Ruhr" is neither a natural region nor an administrative district. Obviously, if the term "Ruhr" is to be used in an economic-territorial

665




sense, it must cover more than the minuscule drainage area of the Ruhr River. In illustrating areal production, use is made of statistics for the administrative regions of Westphalia and the Rhine Province, though a somewhat smaller "Ruhr region" is outlined on the accom-

panying maps. Within the region a distinction can easily be made between a northern zone of mining and heavy industry and a southern zone of finishing industries, especially of

machinery, textiles, and chemicals. The dividing line between the two zones extends along the Ruhr River and westward to the Netherlands frontier just north of Krefeld and Kempen. Within this Ruhr region of 8300 square kilometers live some 6,65o,ooo people-nearly Io per cent of the German population on less than 2 per cent of the territory of prewar Germany.

The foremost reason for this prodigious concentration of population and industry in western Germany is, of course, the Ruhr coal. With 43,350,000,000 tons of proved reserves the Ruhr contains 83 per cent of all German coal resources, or 89 per cent if the Saar and Silesian districts, currently under French and Polish control, are excluded. Emphasis is placed on the dependence of the industrial region on imported food and raw materials; the excel- lence of transportation facilities within the region and from it to adjacent areas of Germany, France, Luxembourg, and the Low Countries; the close collaboration between research and industrial application in the past development of the Ruhr; the high degree of horizontal and vertical integration in Ruhr industries; the widespread international economic relations of the region; and its vital role in world economy, both in war and in peace. Fifty-seven statistical tables on fuel and power production, industrial output, transportation facilities, and commerce occupy more than half of the space in the report. The Ruhr volume includes a brief but useful bibliography and numerous separate folded maps.

Like the Ruhr, the Saar Territory has no particular geographic or geologic unity, but it

gained an administrative identity of its own in I919 when it was detached from Germany and placed under the tutelage of the League of Nations. The economic orientation toward France was abruptly changed in I935 when a League plebiscite returned the Saar to Germany. Since the end of World War II the economy of the Saar has been reoriented toward France, and it now is integrated economically with that country. Two changes have been made in the administrative structure. In July, I946, 143 rural communes in the vicinity of Sarrebourg and Wadern were added on the north, which gave the territory additional agricultural land and a broad frontage on the Moselle River. In June, I947, 62 of the Sarrebourg communes were returned to the Rhine Palatinate, leaving the Saar only a io-kilometer contact with the Moselle and Luxembourg, but at the same time 43 other communes were added in the district northeast of St. Wendel. This modified Saar Territory has an area of 2325 square kilometers, with an estimated population of 825,000.

As in the Ruhr, coal furnishes the basis for the Saar industrial concentration. Estimates of the total reserve differ considerably, but the supply is apparently large enough to permit mining at the prewar rate (I4,3 88,ooo tons in I938) for 200 to 400 years. About 70 per cent of the total industrial output, by value, is contributed by the coal mines and the iron and steel

industry. Ceramic and glass industries are also of more than local significance. Water trans-

portation from the Saar is undeveloped, but four double-track rail lines link the territory with Germany, and three such lines unite it to the industrial centers of Alsace-Lorraine.- RALPH E. OLSON

THE CULTURE HISTORY OF GENEVA. In another in the growing number of detailed urban studies, Louis Blordel traces "Le developpement urbain de Geneve a travers les

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GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD

siecles" (Cahiers de Prehistoire et d'Archeologie, No. 3, Geneva and Nyon, I946). Settle- ment on the lake-shore site dates back nearly 7000 years, and records show that between 2000 and I500 B.C. a sizable community flourished there. By the first century before Christ the town saw the building of fortifications, the bridging of the Rhone, and the beginnings of markets and trade. Expansion and prosperity also marked the Roman period: new

quarters developed beyond the walls, and road construction stimulated commerce. It is estimated that the population at that time numbered 2000 to 2500. The barbarian invasions at the end of the third century put a rude end to this growth, and only its strategic position saved the city from complete destruction. After the establishment of an episcopate in Geneva at the beginning of the fifth century, the tide of growth rose again, and through the centuries the city became not only a religious and political center but an intellectual, cultural, and spiritual center as well; commerce throve, and Geneva's fairs were famous; painters, sculptors, goldsmiths, and architects all plied their arts.

The intellectual and social aspect of the city's life develops as the distinguishing theme in its culture history. At the time of the Reformation, Calvin installed himself in Geneva and made the city the center of an idea; he founded the Academie, later to become a great university, and attracted large numbers of Huguenot refugees, who brought with them their own culture and traditions. Again in i864 the theme recurs with the founding of the International Red Cross, and yet again in 1920 when the city became the seat of the League of Nations. The international flavor of Geneva, its beauty and location, have all combined to make the city a notable tourist center and a favored meeting place for congresses and similar gatherings.

THE SITE OF STRASBOURG. In a brief but informative paper on Strasbourg ("Le site de Strasbourg," Melanges I945, I, Etudes Alsatiques, Publs. Faculte des Lettres de l'Universite de Strasbourg, Fasc. 104, I946), Professor Henri Baulig points out that from one epoch to another the same paysage naturel will take on, thanks to man's activities, quite different forms

-depending upon the state of technique and economy, the size and character of the population, and varying general relationships with the rest of the world. (For an interesting de-

velopment of the same fundamental idea, see Professor Baulig's "La geographie est-elle une science?", Annales de Geogr., Vol. 57, I948, pp. i-II.) However, certain aspects tend to

preserve themselves, owing to a kind of law of inertia, and this is particularly true of com- munication routes.

Strasbourg provides an excellent example. Aside from its long-time function as a river port (serving both the Rhine and the Ill, the main navigable stream of Alsace), the city acts as a knot tying together the principal longitudinal and transverse routes that crisscross the Alsatian Plain. These routes for the most part date back to Roman or even pre-Roman time and have long contributed to the strategic importance of the city.

A NEW ECONOMIC MAP OF SWEDEN. The predominance of mining and metal- lurgy, lumbering and pulping, in the industrial structure of Sweden is clearly evident on a recent economic-geographical map of that country (W. William-Olsson: Ekonomisk- geografisk karta over Sverige, in two sheets, I :,ooo,ooo, Nordisk Rotogravyr, Stockholm, I946). The map shows, by means of globe symbols in different colors and of size according to population, the commercial, industrial, agricultural, transportation, and administrative centers of Sweden. For the extractive industries mentioned above, the criterion for selec-

6,67




tion was that more than 50 per cent of the inhabitants should be engaged in industry and more than 50 per cent of these should be employed in the industry symbolized. Cultivated land is indicated by small gray squares, each of which represents one square kilometer; boundaries of administrative divisions and agricultural regions are shown, and railroads

(both standard and narrow-gauge), roads, and inland waterways. A light purple tint de- notes land above the coniferous-forest line.

The map is accompanied by a text volume, which contains information on such matters as climate, population, land use, and communications, illustrated by numerous sketch maps showing distributions. A separate population dot map, "Befolkningens fordelning i Sverige ar 1940," on the scale of I:I,500,ooo (with insets of densely populated areas, I:I,ooo,ooo) is also included.

AFRICA

PROBLEMS OF BRITISH WEST AFRICA. "The problems of peoples in Africa, faced with the need to adjust themselves to modem conditions, are some of the most serious in the world to-day. We see a later phase of the same adjustment in Asia and we know the

political and economic difficulties we are meeting there. It is our hope that by wise study we

may avoid in our treatment of African problems some of the difficulties and complications that have arisen in Asia." Thus Dr. H.J. Fleure opened ajoint meeting of the Royal Geograph- ical Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute. The meeting heard a report on the "Ashanti Survey, 1945-46: An Experiment in Social Research" by M. Fortes, R. W. Steel, and P. Ady (Geogr. Jotrn., Oct.-Dec., I947 [published Apr., I948], pp. I49-I79). British West Africa (including the British trusteeships of Togoland and the Cameroons) has an

area of some 500,000 square miles, about a thirteenth of the continent, and 30,000,000 people, nearly a fifth of the total population of Africa. Ashanti, though it occupies rather less than a

third ofthe Gold Coast, or about 24,000 square miles, exhibits many of the problems common

to West Africa as a whole. It illustrates the effects of the latitudinal zoning that is the cardinal

fact in West Africa-savanna in the north, forest in the south. There are some anomalies in

the Gold Coast (see C. G. Wise: Climatic Anomalies on the Accra Plain, Geography, Vol.

29, 1944, pp. 35-38); in Nigeria the full range is seen, from near desert in the extreme north

to equatorial forest in the south-Maiduguri has an annual total of 26 inches of rain and a

long dry season, as against the I20 inches of Calabar and 375 inches at a station in the Cam-

eroons. Seasonal drought and hunger periods characterize the north; soil erosion is serious

in both Nigeria and the Gold Coast, where increasing population presses on a subsistence

economy (see, for example, the report of a subcommittee of the Plateau Provincial Develop- ment Committee, Nigeria, in the July-Dec., I947, number of Farm and Forest, Ibadan). The

south has its agricultural problems, too, highlighted in the Gold Coast, for instance, by the

ravages of the "swollen shoot" cocoa disease. On the social and political side wide differences exist: between the great Moslem emirates

of the north, the pagan tribes of the plateau, the Creoles of Sierra Leone, and the educated

and vocal population of the coast towns. Vernon McKay describes the contrasts as displayed in the tin-mining town of Jos, in central Nigeria: "Here the visitor can see educated Ibos

and Yorubas from the South wearing the popular multicolored cotton prints; white-robed

Moslems from the Hausa country to the north; pagan tribesmen whose sole article of raiment

is a bunch of leaves or a bit of goatskin attached to a thong tied around the waist; and several

hundred Europeans" (Nationalism in British West Africa, Foreign Policy Repts., Vol. 24,

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GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD

I948, pp. 2-II). He notes that the Emir of Kano has nearly 212 million subjects and is the

highest-paid official of British West Africa (British Rule in West Africa, ibid., pp. 70-79). To return to the Ashanti survey. Dr. Fortes lists subjects in urgent need of research:

"First, the ecological factors of soil, climate, vegetation, communications, distribution of

population ... These are the basis of the cocoa, mining, and timber industries which have, in thirty years, transformed the economy . . . Next come the more strictly economic factors summed up in the description of cocoa as an export crop, of the mines as a source of wages for immigrant labour, and in references to the monopolistic trading concerns.... Finally there is the strictly social and psychological group of factors; that is, factors arising out of the special forms of domestic, village, and political relations current in Ashanti, out of the

occupations of the people, the religions they profess, the aspirations they hold, and so forth." An estimate of the problems these factors present "from the point of view of sociological

research" is given by Raymond Firth in the April andJuly, I947, numbers of Africa, together with a set of research projects that might be undertaken (Social Problems and Research in British West Africa, Vol. 17, pp. 77-92 and 170-180). The basic premise is that on the whole "West Africa is comparatively poor in natural resources but rich in man-power, though the economic efficiency of this is undermined by disease, inadequate technology and technical

training, and lack of large-scale organizations." The war quickened the tempo of change in West Africa. A considerable number of

natives served with the armed forces, and their homeland was the scene of much strategic activity as a supply route. "The ports and airfields of Bathurst, Freetown, Takoradi, Accra and Lagos are important bases on the route to the Middle East when the Mediterranean life- line is cut. As a result of wartime expansion there are more than forty airfields, landing grounds and seaplane bases in the four colonies" (McKay, Nationalism in British West Africa; see also M. Fortes: The Impact of the War on British West Africa, Internatl. Affairs, Vol. 2I, 1945, pp. 206-219). Employment on construction jobs and increased exports brought more money into the colonies, and increased contacts with other civilizations brought new ideologies; nationalism was given an impetus. The most advanced phase of the nationalist movement, Zikism, is analyzed by Dr. McKay-its strength of idealism and energy, its weak- ness of unrealism and regional opposition. The question which it raises, and toward which all others lead, is taken up by Lord Hailey in an address made on his return from revisiting West Africa (The Foundation of Self-Government in the African Colonies, African Affairs, Vol. 47, I948, pp. 147-I53). "It is axiomatic," he says, "that if self-government is to be a reality in the colonies it must be based on a secure foundation of economic and social progress." To the question how soon the grant of self-government would be justified he replies: "We must be realistic here. All that we have lately seen of events in other parts of the world shows that the question is not one of political ethics but one of dynamics. That is to say, the decision will depend not so much on our own judgment of merits, as on the strength of the forces operating-the internal forces striving for self-government in the colonies, the external forces arising partly in our own domestic politics, and partly from the pressure of international opinion. There is no need for me to dwell on the strength of these external forces, for the evidence of them is obvious. It is difficult, however, to estimate the possibilities of the growth of the internal forces."

So we come back to the question of the economic, social, and political development of the colonies and what is being done there. Under the Colonial Development and Welfare

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Acts of I940 and 1945 financial aid was made available for such purposes. But there is general disappointment-and not only among the native peoples-that progress has been slow and aid insufficient. Frustration through shortage of staff and materials is the opening note of the Annual Reportsfor the Northern, Western, Eastern Provinces and the Colony [of Nigeriafor the

Year] 1946 (Lagos, I947). There is much discussion about priorities: should "development" precede "welfare"?

So closely are the two intertwined that, in the words of one observer (McKay), "what is needed is the simultaneous expansion of both functions on a much larger scale than is con-

templated by the present programs." The Emir of Zaria remarked that his own emirate could use all the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund for the whole British Empire!

One of the larger development projects under consideration is the extension to British West Africa of the groundnuts scheme now being put into operation in East Africa (see the

Geogr. Rev., Vol. 37, 1947, pp. 494-495; also "Not Just Peanuts," British Information Serv-

ices, New York, 1948). The report of the West African Oilseeds Mission (Colonial No. 224,

1948) makes recommendations for selected areas in the Gold Coast, Nigeria, and the Gambia.

They are lands not now being cultivated-mechanization in the areas of peasant production is not considered feasible at present. It is of interest to note the comment regarding one of the two Nigerian areas, the one west of Maiduguri: "Good yields of groundnuts can be obtained down to 20 inches of annual rainfall, but at that rainfall problems of desiccation and wind erosion would arise. We do not, therefore, consider that mechanised cultivation should be undertaken in areas of less than 25 inches average rainfall until further experience is available."

On the side of welfare much importance is attached to the nutritional experiment being carried on in the Gambia (Crown Colonist, April, I948, pp. 202-203). A scheme to have medical specialists visit Africa is being financed by the Nuffield Foundation (Nature, June I9, I948, p. 947). The long way that Nigeria has to go in education is illustrated by a graph of revenue and expenditure on education per capita in Great Britain and Nigeria by G. E.

Tewson (Nigeria: Test Case of Empire, Magazine of the Future, London, August, I947; distributed in the United States by the Chanticleer Press, New York City). But there does exist an interest in the problem at all levels, from the new university colleges-of the Gold Coast near to but distinct from the old Achimota College and of Nigeria at Ibadan-to an experiment being conducted by the Colonial Film Unit. "African films, made by Africans for Africans, is the ultimate objective. A Regional Film School is to be established at Accra, and will be opened in August. Here will be trained the technicians who will take over yet another part of the huge task of guiding their illiterate brothers on the path to self-government" (Alan Gray: The Film's Part in African Progress, African World, August, I948, p. 15).

EROSION AND "BOVALIZATION" IN FRENCH GUINEA. Some recent observa- tions by A. Aubreville, inspector general of forest and water resources of the French

colonies, add emphasis to the testimony of tropical agronomists and pedologists that a luxuriant forest cover cannot be regarded as an indication that the supporting soils are

suitable for intensive agriculture (Erosion et "bovalisation" en Afrique Noire Franqaise,

L'Agronomie Tropicale, Vol. 2, 1947, pp. 339-357). He introduces a concept of "vertical

erosion," which he describes as the loss of colloids in sandy soils as a result of excessive clean cultivation under a regime of high temperatures and heavy rainfall. In addition to a

rapid oxidation of organic matter, there is, he believes, an accelerated flushing of clay

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GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD

particles from predominately sandy topsoils, which causes a marked increase in the "sandi- ness" of the topsoil. However, no data of physical analyses of soils before clearing and after cultivation are submitted to indicate the rapidity of the accelerated downward movement of the clays. The translocation of clays from eluvial to illuvial horizons during the long period of soil-profile development is a recognized phenomenon. The suggestion that it is

significantly accelerated under clean cultivation ought to be supported by appropriate data. The principal discussion describes the formation of bove (singular, boval) in French

Guinea. A boval is a natural opening in the forest where the land surface is a consolidated

ferruginous crust that seldom supports anything but a sparse savanna. Sometimes a few trees grow in the crevices. It is apparent that boval is the local term for an area where true laterite has been exposed or nearly exposed by the erosion of the soil's eluvial horizon. The error of Marbut and others who have given "laterite" a misleading chemical definition

emphasizing a high aluminum content makes M. Aubreville hesitate to apply that term to the ferruginous crusts of the bove. They are, however, typical laterite according to the

original definition of Buchanan, which deserves priority. The sketches illustrating the bove and the descriptions of the erosion processes by

which the ferruginous hardpan is exposed are welcome additions to the literature on laterite.

They emphasize how devastated the land becomes, and how worthless it is for forestry or agriculture, as soon as the surficial soil cover is removed by erosion and the underlying laterite crust is exposed. M. Aubreville aptly describes bovalisation as "leprosy of the soil." It is the unfortunate consequence of clearing the forest from land where true laterite exists.

M. Aubreville endorses the opinion of Scaetta that laterite hardpans become consolidated and impervious within a few years as surface soil is eroded; also that the bove increase in extent as a consequence of clearing, cultivation, and lowering of the ground-water table. The pedologists Mohr and Pendleton have shown conclusively that laterite hardpans are the result of a particular type of soil development that took place slowly under humid tropical conditions long before cultivation and consequent erosion exposed them. Laterite formations acquire a brittle hardness when exposed by erosion, but their development is not extended or influenced by cultivation. Man does not accelerate the fundamental damage already accomplished by natural processes.-EDWARD C. HIGBEE

LIBERIAN TRIBAL SETTLEMENTS. The relatively small country of Liberia, roughly 43,000 square miles in area, is inhabited by 23 tribes or remnants of tribes. Nine of these (Gbunde, Loma, Mano, Ge, Gio, Tie, Sapa, Grebo, and Half-Grebo) have been studied in detail by George Schwab, who describes their economy and village life, social organization, religious beliefs, and material culture in an extensive monograph (Tribes of the Liberian Hinterland, edited by G. W. Harley, Papers Peabody Museum of Amer. Archaeol. and Ethnol., Harvard Univ., Vol. 3I, I947).

Villages differ greatly in size: the larger, which occasionally have as many as 600 huts, are known locally as "towns"; the smaller, which have as few as two to five, are called, quaintly, "half-towns." In general, however, settlements of 30 to 90 huts are most numerous; the towns of the paramount chiefs average I50 to 250. The villages are usually on elevated land, sometimes even on high, steep hills. Sites are selected with the aid of a diviner, but two practical considerations are dominant-an adequate water supply and easily accessible arable land. Formerly defensibility was also important, and the ubiquitous circular pattern of the villages doubtless had its origin in the earlier practice of fortifying them.

67I




The towns are built without plan-"hut is crowded against hut, wherever space can be found, without regard to passages or streets"-but there is commonly a central court or

compound, where much of the activity of village life is centered. Houses are characteris-

tically circular, the wall made of closely set stakes bound with ropes of heavy vines. A ceiling is constructed on top, and over all is fitted a conical roof made of raffia thatch.

The villagers are farmers, going out each day to their fields. An average family cultivates a plot of one or two acres, on which are grown rice, sugar cane, yams, beans, cassava, and other subsistence crops. Surplus produce, if any, is sold or bartered in the village markets. A

picturesque account of one of these markets is contained in Esther Warner's thoroughly enjoyable book on Liberian life, "New Song in a Strange Land" (Houghton Mifflin, Boston,

1948), which may be said to provide for the interested reader the spirit to animate Mr. Schwab's more solid body of facts.

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

WORLD TRADE IN CACAO. For three centuries and a half cacao has been a commodity in world trade, but only within recent decades has it become of major importance: world

production increased from a total of 77,000 metric tons in 1895 to more than 780,000 in

1939 (E. G. Montgomery and A. M. Taylor: World Trade in Cocoa, U. S. Dept. of Com-

merce, Office of Internatl. Trade, Industrial Ser. No. 71, 1947). Venezuela took an early lead as the principal exporter and held the position for about a hundred years; Ecuador followed

(I850-191o), then Brazil (1910-I920), and, finally, West Africa (since 1920). At present Africa supplies more than two-thirds of the world imports (68 per cent in I945). The United States is by far the largest consumer, regularly taking from 36 to 40 per cent.

The rapid development of West Africa as a producer of cacao is due to a combination of extraordinarily favorable physical conditions for the growth of the tree, low labor and

production costs, and the comparative freedom from insect pests and plant diseases that

usually follows the introduction of such a crop into new territory. Now, however, further

expansion seems improbable. For one thing, the present acreage is about up to the available labor supply, and to import workers would substantially increase production costs. Further, within the past I0 years pests and diseases have become a serious problem, and effective control measures are likewise expensive. All told, it would seem that the era of low-cost

production of cacao in West Africa is coming to an end. In addition to the difficulty of competing with the African area, cacao development in

the Latin-American producing countries has been retarded by diseases, notably witches'-

broom and monilia. Within the past year, however, a Cacao Center has been established at

the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences at Turrialba, Costa Rica (Information Bull. No. 7, January, 1948), and it is hoped that, through research and experimentation, production in the Latin-American countries can be maintained or even increised.

"STARRED SCIENTISTS" AND GENIUSES. Many would perhaps agree with William

James that there is very little difference between one man and another, but what little there

is, is very important. As recently as I943, Ellsworth Huntington stated that one of the out-

standing gaps in geography was the measurement of human differences. Certainly the com-

parative regional production and utilization of persons differing from the general population in some nature and degree that we roughly characterize as "exceptional ability" or "high

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GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD

achievement" constitute a significant aspect of population distribution and differential

regional economy. Moreover, in this age of science, when scientists in increasing numbers and quality are

vital to war efforts and peacetime progress, the origin of the more skilled among them, their

training, and such identifiable stimuli as have contributed to exceptional achievement are matters of high national significance. In peace or in war, it would seem that the progress of civilization is to depend in no small degree on scientists, especially those who can take the

great leaps. We may be on the verge of an almost frantic official search for science talent and

ways of stimulating it to new peaks of achievement. In 1903, Professor Cattell, with the assistance of o1 outstanding scientists in each of 12

fields, prepared a list of Iooo of the more significant living North American scientists. Since then, six similar selections have been made, the latest in I944. Some 2600 scientists in all have thus been designated, or "starred," as a composite judgment of their fellow workers.

For a quarter of a century Stephen Sargent Visher has studied human ability and achievement in their distributive aspect; that research has now reached full fruition in a definitive volume, "Scientists Starred I903-I943 in 'American Men of Science': A Study of Collegiate and Doctoral Training, Birthplace, Distribution, Backgrounds, and Developmental In- fluences" (The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, I947).

Information obtained by a questionnaire survey of starred scientists now living provided part of the basis for a detailed analysis of many significant geographical and nongeographical aspects of that rare individual the outstanding scientist. The long-time leadership of our Northeast in production of such people is undergoing a progressive decline; trends for other sections are neither so well established nor so striking. The significant differences from area to area and from time to time are examined with relation to possible correlations with people, place, and period. The phenomenon is too complex for single, or simple, explanation.

Students of the historical geography of the United States are well aware of initial and long-continuing differences in population, settlement, and environment among the original states. But that the population of those states should have had a 27-fold variation in the production of persons of genius per Ioo,ooo population in I790, and a 3oo-fold variation in such production per unit area, is no less than amazing. Walter G. Bowerman in "Studies in Genius" examines in much detail the phenomenon of highly exceptional and diverse ability that we call "genius," utilizing both an American and a world-wide sample (Philosophical Library, New York, 1947). Primary attention is given to the biological characteristics of the phenomenon, not to significant geographical differences in production or the hypothetical reasons therefor; nor is the resulting impact on society dealt with. Genius for purposes of the study is defined as "high intellectual ability," whether it is "creative," "scholarly," "critical," or "expansive." But the test is in considerable part a matter of acknowledged achievement; the sample of ooo1000 eminent Americans was derived from the nearly I4,000 sketches in the

Dictionary of American Biography, the length of sketch having much weight; the Encyclo- paedia Britannica served as the source for the world sample.-JOHN KERR ROSE

HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHY

CHINESE INFLUENCE ON EARLY KOREAN CARTOGRAPHY. Korean atlases, usually reckoned among the rarest of Far Eastern cartographic documents, are interesting because of the intermediate position they occupy between Chinese andJapanese cartography.

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Most old Korean atlases, as Hirosi Nakamura points out in "Old Chinese World Maps Preserved by the Koreans" (Imago Mundi, No. 4, Stockholm, 1947, pp. 3-22), include a

map of the world, seemingly taken largely from Chinese sources. These mappemondes resemble "the medallion portrait of the right profile of a man ... The head forms the central

world continent, in which the Celestial Empire occupies almost the middle of the face.

The front, or eastern part, of the coiffure represents Korea; the chin and neck to the south

Annam and India; the back or western part of the coiffure the Western countries." From

the examination of a large number of Korean atlases Professor Nakamura has attempted to

date the world maps contained in them. Comparisons between the nomenclature of the

Korean mappemondes and that of Chinese maps and geographical sources suggest that the

Chinese originals were most probably compiled between the eleventh and fifteenth cen-

turies, and that some of the Chinese sources consulted may go back to the T'ang period

(A.D. 6I8-907). It is now known that Chinese cartography reached a very high level of development

under the T'ang dynasty, and that Chinese contacts with the outside world, partly through

diplomatic and commercial channels, and partly by the endeavors of such Chinese traveling scholars as Fa Hsien and Hsiian Tsang, enabled such cartographers as Kia Tan to produce

large and rather complete maps of the world in the eighth century of our era. Comparisons of the Korean mappemondes with surviving copies of Chinese maps illustrating the travels

of Hsiian Tsang and with a Sino-Tibetan world map taken from China to Japan by aJapanese Buddhist priest in the ninth century and subsequently copied there-complete with Tibetan

characters, which the scribe was unable to identify, as he admits with sorrow-show that

Chinese cartographers of the T'ang and later periods were quite aware of the existence of

countries far beyond those represented on the traditional, disk-shaped mappemondes; for

example, the Byzantine Empire. However, with the conservatism characteristic of cartog-

raphers everywhere, they chose to ignore geographic knowledge that might upset the

traditional framework of their maps and continued to fit knowledge acquired into the well-

established disk-shaped world maps. This contribution deserves an outstanding place among the too rare writings on Oriental

cartography. Professor Nakamura has a profound knowledge of the literature of his field,

both in Western and in Eastern languages, a keen and discerning eye for the important, and

an accurate observation of detail.-GEORGE KISH

GEOGRAPHICAL NEWS

BRITISH COMMONWEALTH CONFERENCE ON TROPICAL AND SUB-

TROPICAL SOILS. The dependence of most of the British dominions and colonies on

agriculture emphasizes the need for research and the dissemination of its results. Toward

this end a number of agricultural bureaus were established in Great Britain in the I920's.

Besides the publication of valuable, abstract journals, these bureaus issue monographs on

subjects of importance in their several fields and facilitate the distribution of publications of other agencies in Great Britain. Outstanding among them is the Commonwealth Bureau

of Soil Science. Its headquarters are about 25 miles north of London, at Harpenden, near

Rothamsted, the oldest and best-known soils experimental station in the world. Some years

ago the central sales office for the publications of all the bureaus was established at Penglais,

Aberystwyth, Wales.

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GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD

Early in 1948 the Colonial Office called a conference on tropical and subtropical soils. Invitations were sent not only to soil scientists of the dominions and colonies but also to those of other countries sharing in the soil problems. The Commonwealth Bureau of Soil Science was given the task of arranging the details, and its director, G. V. Jacks, with his small staff, cared for everything most efficiently and pleasantly. The conference opened on

June 14, I948, in Harpenden Town Hall. Forty-five soil scientists were present as official members from the dominions and colonies and I6 observers from the United Nations F.A.O., Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Palestine, and the United States.

The main topics for discussion were tropical and subtropical soils, soil classification, fertility problems, and soil erosion. Mornings and evenings were devoted to the reading and discussion of papers; afternoons were spent in visiting the Rothamsted laboratories and

experimental fields. The better to view the classic experimental plots, the conferees were seated on benches made of small bales of hay covered with gunny sacks, arranged on high farm wagons drawn by light tractors. The farm manager and assistants explained the ex-

periments being viewed and the general nature of the results. This is without question the most satisfactory way in which to show a large party of visitors an experimental station where field plots being cropped are an important feature of the research methods.

The conference was interrupted by a day's trip to the Cambridgeshire Fens, where the

peat soils have been drained by pumping and are producing crops. A stop was made at the School of Agriculture, Cambridge University, and brief visits were paid to some of the

colleges. OnJune 20 the conference members traveled by bus to Magdalen College, Oxford, where four nights were spent. Temperate-zone, as well as tropical and subtropical, soil monoliths were compared and discussed in the Soil Science Museum of the Department of

Agriculture. Two days were spent in the study of land use and soil profiles in the Vale of Evesham

and in the Cotswolds. Here opencast mining of iron ore was seen, in which the surface soil is removed, the ore mined to a depth of many feet, and the soil carefully replaced. Excellent crops of grain were growing on the replaced soil; it is even asserted that the soil is more productive than when it was at the higher level. The effects of different species of forest trees on the soil profiles that develop under them were demonstrated in Bagley Wood, a few miles south of Oxford. Near by, in Kennington, Dr. E. M. Crowther explained his experiments to measure the effects of various fertilizers and other soil treatments, in his

cooperation with the Forestry Commission to grow the best possible Scots pine and Sitka

spruce seedlings for the establishment of forests on infertile heath soils. From Oxford the conference party traveled southwest to Lyndhurst, in the New Forest.

Stops were made en route to view soil profiles and also to see Stonehenge; and examples of the Celtic strip linchets were noted. From Northerwood House, the headquarters of the

Forestry Commission in the New Forest, the party traversed much of the Forest, visiting particularly the young plantings of Scots pine and Sitka spruce on Wareham Heath.

At the opening of the conference two committees had been appointed, one, under Dr. Alex Muir, to report on the measure of agreement on existing methods of soil classification and to make recommendations for further study; the other, under Dr. E. M. Crow- ther, to report on measures to coordinate and promote work on the increase of soil fertility. On June 25, at the last meeting of the conference, the final reports of the two committees were submitted. It would be inappropriate for this observer to anticipate the formal con- clusions of the conference, but he did get a strong impression that many of the conventional

675




points of view about tropical soils and their methods of study are now admitted to be of little use or, even worse, to convey wrong ideas. Much emphasis was placed on the need for a central organization to facilitate correlation of soil surveys and soil classification in different regions, not only to make more effective the utilization and conservation of soils in the dominions and colonies but as a basis on which appropriate, well-defined, and rational higher categories of soils, and ultimately great soil groups, can be set up. This is an admission of the serious inadequacies of the now generally used "great soil group" terms. Conspicu- ously absent was any endeavor on the part of the conference to set out, at this time, the

great soil groups that should be followed by the field men in mapping and classifying the soils of the tropical and subtropical regions of the Commonwealth. It was evident that there is a growing appreciation of the need for much more precise and significant data. Grave doubts were cast on the utility and significance of such commonly used criteria as the

silica/sesquioxide ratios; instead, emphasis was placed on an adequate staff and facilities for

determining the X-ray, thermal-curve characteristics and analyses of the clays of tropical soils. In the report of the soil-fertility committee, the adequate consideration of native

agricultural practices in tropical regions was repeatedly stressed. Emphasis was also laid on the importance of tree crops, especially on poor leached soils, both for bringing nutrients to the surface and for the direct production of food and fodder crops, as well as for use as cover crops and for timber and fruit; and the desirability of study of the effects of termites on soil fertility was pointed out. These reports were accepted by the conference after very little discussion and with only slight modification. The beneficial effects of such a conference on the soil scientists scattered in isolated stations around the globe, and on what they can accomplish, are incalculable. Our remembrance of the courage and patience of the British scientists and their determination to carry on in spite of numerous and serious shortages and the lack of research facilities will encourage us not only to do more ourselves but, where possible, to proffer help.-ROBERT L. PENDLETON

A NEW PERIODICAL ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF NATIONS. A growing interest in the study of psychological differences and similarities among peoples is spreading in both scholastic and business circles. Under the influence of Vidal de la Blache in France and Mackinder and Fleure in Britain, geographers have paid more attention to the personality cf countries, whether national or regional entities. In this they have found that they could not ignore the psychological factor in human behavior toward the physical environment and the outside world. Anthropologists also have given increased attention to the psychological factor in their studies of primitive peoples; economists and sociologists, in their studies of modern nations.

In I946 the Institut Havrais de Sociologie Economique et de Psychologie des Peuples, at Le Havre, began the publication of the Revue de Psychologie des Peuples. It is significant that such an enterprise should have been started by a great port that is seeking to rebuild its trade and re-establish its world-wide connections after the terrible destruction it suffered in the war. For this purpose a study in the psychology of nations appeared useful to the local authorities. Le Havre has old cultural traditions. The influence of Professor Andre Siegfried, a native son, was perhaps of some weight-his article on the "Psychology of the Latin

Peoples" opened the first number of the Revue (May, I946). No one could have been better qualified to launch the new periodical; nobody in these days has contributed more to an

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GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD

understanding of national patterns and to the interpretation of one side of the Atlantic to the other.

Among other articles to date (Vol. 3, No. I, Jan. 1948) may be mentioned an essay by the historian Firmin Roz on the American soul and another by Gabriel Audisio on North African populations (Aug., 1946). articles on the people of Normandy (Nov., 1946), the Lithuanians (Jan., I947), and the Malagasy (by Colonel Edouard de Martonne, Jan., 1948), on the Russian religion (May, 1947), and on South American ethnography (Jan., 1948); an entire number is devoted to Belgium and its duality (Nov., I947). The authors of the several articles come from various branches of science, ranging from geography to medicine and pure philosophy; all contribute to the synthesis of our knowledge of one of the most obscure but most decisive factors in the over-all pattern that makes up geographical reality.-JEAN GOTMANNT

ANNOUNCEMENT OF A COMMITTEE ON PLEISTOCENE RESEARCH UNDER THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL. In June, 1947, the Division of Geology and Geography of the National Research Council set up a Committee on the Interrelations of Pleistocene Research. The objectives of this committee are: (I) to review the present status of research in the fields of science concerned with the Pleistocene epoch; (2) to provide for the interchange of information between workers in these fields; and (3) to suggest problems in need of further investigation, particularly those involving two or more disciplines. The following are the committee members: Edward S. Deevey, Jr., biogeography (Department of Biology, Yale University); Loren C. Eiseley, anthropology and New World archeology (Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania); Richard Foster Flint, chairman of the committee (Department of Geology, Yale University); Claude W. Hibbard, vertebrate paleontology (Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan); Chauncey D. Holmes, glacial erosion and sedimentation (Department of Geology, University of Missouri); Helmut E. Landsberg, meteorology and climatology (Committee on Geophysical Sciences, Research and Development Board, Washington, D. C.); Hallam L. Movius, Jr., Old World archeology (Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University); Fred B. Phleger, Jr., oceanography and sea-floor geology (Department of Geology, Amherst Col- lege); Louis L. Ray, glacial stratigraphy, alpine glacial geology (United States Geological Survey, Washington, D. C.); H. T. U. Smith, eolian features, frost phenomena, and stream terraces (Geology Department, University of Kansas); James Thorp, soil science (Division of Soil Survey, United States Department of Agriculture, Lincoln, Nebraska).

It is hoped that the work of the committee will further the coordination of effort between geology and allied sciences that have Pleistocene phenomena as their common meeting place and will make for a more effective attack on basic problems of mutual concern. Con- structive suggestions, reprints of pertinent papers, and information regarding research in progress or other matters relating to the work of the committee will be welcomed from all interested scientists. If concerned with special fields, these should be addressed to individual members; if of more general import, they may be sent to the chairman.-H. T. U. SMITH

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