THE IMPACT OF THE SYSTEM OF MINOR CIVIL DIVISIONS ON AGRICULTURE

Mathematical techniques are used to test the hypothesis that Soviet farm efficiency, as reflected in farm profit rates, is higher in areas where the boundaries of collective and state farms coincide with the boundaries of rural soviets, the lowest local government areas. Conversely, farm performance suffers when farm territories are broken up among two or more rural soviets. The use of Karl Pearson's coefficient of contingency, which may be used to measure the strength of a relationship between qualitative variables, shows a positive relationship between farm profit rates and boundary coincidence. The authors therefore urge frequent review of local government areas to insure that they correspond to the boundaries of agricultural operating units.     

RESEARCH IN PROGRESS IN SCANDINAVIA

The authors quantitatively analyze the effect of railroad construction on agricultural land values in the often overlooked, agriculturally oriented, trans-Mississippi West. This region is unique in American history in that, at the end of the nineteenth century, the railroad itself preceded widespread settlement. Using a hedonic model, they show that railroad transport increased agricultural land values in this region by more than 20 percent, which had a larger impact than recent studies have found for other regions. Moreover, the authors found that the addition of a railroad to a county significantly increased its growth in land values. This finding is contrary to that of existing studies. Finally, the authors show statistically that the railroad and land values were not endogenously determined, lending credibility to the causality of the results presented in their hedonic and growth models. These results indicate a valuable alternative approach to use in the historical analysis of transportation infrastructure and its impact on land prices.     

Specialization of Agriculture in Relatively Similar Natural Environments of the USSR and the United States

Four pairs of minor civil divisions in the United States and the USSR are compared to determine differences of agricultural land use in areas with similar soils and heat and moisture supplies. In the United States, crops exceed animal products as a source of farm income only in the driest area. In the Soviet Union, crops are the principal source of farm income in both dry and more humid areas. This is related to the fact that the United States produces forage grasses and forage root crops mainly in more humid areas, while the Soviet Union relegates forage crops to a secondary role after bread grains and industrial row crops. Grain yields in the United States rise markedly from drier to more humid areas. In the Soviet Union the highest yields are achieved in the moderately dry chernozem zone.     

Geographical Aspects of Biological Productivity

Annual plant production and total plant mass are calculated for 106 types of soil and plant formations of the world, grouped in turn by major thermal belts and bioclimatic regions (humid, semiarid, arid) within these thermal belts. Aggregate magnitudes of annual growth and total plant mass by thermal belts and their bioclimatic regions follow a sequence of alternating high values in humid regions and low values in arid regions that bears a similarity to the periodic law of geographical zonality. Maximum plant production is associated with the Tropical belt, where combinations of heat and moisture favor maximum intensity of the physical-geographic process. A related paper, by Bazilevich and Rodin, appeared in Soviet Geography, January 1971.     

Urban bound migration and rural investment: the case of Mexico

The authors investigate an agriculturally based policy for improving rural incomes and for retarding the rural-urban migration flow. The production of agricultural goods is characterized by a production function in which output increases with increases in agricultural labor inputs, capital, public infrastructure, land, and technology. Differences among regions in agricultural technology will reflect regional differences in education, the institutionalized form of productive organization, and differences in access to technological information channeled through more technically advanced cities. To pick up the effect of out-migration changes in state agricultural labor supply and upon agricultural output, the state's agricultural out-migration rate is included together with the agricultural labor force. The gross migrant flow between 2 locations is hypothesized to depend upon a set of variables influencing the individual's perception of the economic rate of return to be gained by moving, a set of variables reflecting the individual's propensity to relocate, the labor displacement effects of investments, and the at risk population at 1 location available to migrate. It is also taken into account that individuals differ in their response to information about origin and destination wage differentials and that individuals may or may not perceive a new ecnomic gain from migration but may base the decision on other considerations. Results of a statistical analysis using data from the Mexican census of population for 1960 and 1970 are: 1) size of the rural labor force was negatively associated with agricultural wages, contrary to expectations; 2) small farmers have benefited from the expansion of irrigation in Mexico; and 3) higher urban wages attract migration, and higher growth rate of agricultural income retards rural-urban migration. With respect to the 1950-60 decade both agricultural income and rural out-migration impacts could have been substantial but both the impact on local urban growth and on the rate of in-migration to the primate city would have been slight.     

International Collaboration in the Compilation of Monographs on the Geography of Individual Socialist Countries

The paper describes an attempt to determine the causes of the development of the present gully network in the steppe and forest-steppe of the European part of the USSR. The authors develop a technique that involves comparing the number of gullies derived from a map of gully density with the number of gullies derived from data on the expansion of the cropland area within the boundaries of the prerevolutionary guberniyas (major civil divisions). The authors conclude from the close correspondence of the two sets of figures that the great majority of gullies could have been formed as a result of the plowing up of the land over the 150 to 300 years of agricultural land use in the study region and can therefore be assumed to have arisen as a result of human activities.     

ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SECTORAL AND SPATIAL MANAGEMENT IN THE ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY OF THE USSR

The management system of the electric power industry of the USSR operates at two technological levels: a lower level of 92 regional power systems, each encompassing one or more oblast-type civil divisions or a small union republic; an upper level in which regional systems are combined into 11 unified power systems, where peak loads can be more easily moved between time zones. In addition there are electric power administrations within the RSFSR and ministries within the union republics, concerned mainly with administrative functions. Power administrations often do not coincide with unified systems, creating problems of efficient electric power management. Furthermore, the boundaries of unified power systems and power administrations often do not conform to the boundaries of major economic regions, which are used for current and long-term planning of the Soviet economy. This does not necessarily mean that the power systems are out of step with the economic regions. Soviet economic regionalization theory has long stressed the important region-shaping role of electric power systems. It may well be that in some cases, the boundaries of economic regions, not the power systems, require adjustment.     

Urban and Rural Definitions in Regional Context: A Case Study on Turkey

Transformations in the urban and rural areas under the effects of global economic, social and political circumstances have rendered their boundaries more blurring. It has become increasingly difficult to make a clear distinction between urban and rural. This paper intends to bring definitions of urban–rural into discussion in the context of Turkey. It reveals the results of a research project (conducted by Hürriyet G. Ö?dül with Serkan Öngel and Habip Uluçay from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2007 and financed by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey and Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Research Fund), aiming at revealing the degrees of the urbanity and rurality throughout the country, with an emphasis on the diversification of regions in the urban–rural context. The study is conducted at the NUTS 4 level. Districts are classified as “dominantly rural, dominantly urban and transitional” through the factor analysis based on six structures: agricultural production, non-agricultural production, employment, demography, education and flows of money, goods and people. The urban–rural profile of the country is found as rural and transitional. It is possible to observe some areas displaying deep rural characters in well-developed western regions and some “prosperity spots” dispersed throughout the less-developed eastern regions. Then, regional classifications ranging from “concentrated urban regions” to “rural regions” are made at the NUTS 1 level. Finally, the results are evaluated in perspectives of spatial planning of Turkey and entering process to the EU.     

Mesoamerican Stingless Beekeeping

Stingless beekeeping is practiced throughout Mexico and Central America, from northwestern Mexico to the Azuero Peninsula in western Panama. Within this area three distinct beekeeping regions emerge. On the Yucatan Peninsula beekeeping is an essential component in the agricultural and cultural heritage, technically sophisticated and frequently practiced, Beyond the Yucatan Peninsula and corresponding roughly with the" limits of ancient Mesoamerican civilization, stingless beekeeping occurs but it is of lesser significance in aboriginal and mestizo agriculture and culture, unsophisticated in practice and only occasionally encountered. In areas to the north and south of ancient Mesoamenca's cultural boundaries, stingless beekeeping is of little agricultural or cultural importance, simple in its application and rarely practiced. This study concludes that stingless beekeeping in the New World originated among the Maya of the Yucatan Peninsula and diffused to other indigenous groups within Mesoamertca, and later in a much diluted form to groups beyond Mesoamerica.     

An Attempt to Delimit the Main Economic Zones of the Mongolian People's Republic

The authors participated with Mongolian specialists in a joint project to delimit economic regions in Mongolia (June-July 1961). The three-region scheme that emerged from the project is designed to facilitate long-term economic planning and the future agricultural and industrial development of the country. The three economic regions or zones are mapped and described in the latter part of the article. The translation does not include small introductory sections not directly related to the central theme of the paper.     

Land Abandonment in Russia

Field observations in two regions of European Russia (Kostroma and Samara oblasts) in summer 2010, reinforced by satellite imagery, provide a basis for a team of U.S. and Russian geographers to investigate ongoing changes in agricultural land use since the early 1990s. The authors highlight the contrasting situations in Kostroma (northern European Russia), where agriculture is limited and in retreat beyond relatively small scale operations in suburbia, and Samara (southern European Russia), where agricultural activity appears to be sustainable, albeit on a somewhat less extensive spatial scale than in the past. The comparison suggests that the change from central planning to unregulated market has not been popular, and that crop farming in both regions has better prospects than animal husbandry. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O130, P320, Q150, R140. 1 table, 17 figures, 21 references.     

Benefitting from Learning Networks in “Open Innovation”: Spin-off Firms in Contrasting City Regions

R&D and innovation increasingly take place in networks that extend beyond the boundaries of a single firm, with customers in an important role in the learning processes involved. This phenomenon is captured by the term “open innovation”. Advantages of open innovation encompass cost reduction and an increased competitiveness. Spatial innovation theory however indicates that the potential of open innovation is not the same for all urban regions, there may be differences between large metropolitan areas and small cities. In this context, the authors compare university spin-off firms in two contrasting urban regions in Europe, Delft in the Netherlands and Trondheim in Norway (a metropolitan area versus an isolated city) with regard to the profile of their learning networks and the contribution of these networks to growth. Learning networks appear to differ in structure and strength, in spatial configuration and also in the influence on job growth. Thus, networks in Delft (in a large metropolitan area) tend to be stronger compared to those in Trondheim (isolated city), whereas the influence of network strength on growth tends to be negative in Delft but positive in Trondheim. Overall, firms in Trondheim tend to rely more on own resources and capabilities and less on learning networks in open innovation.     

Asian Crop Dispersal in Africa and Late Holocene Human Adaptation to Tropical Environments

Journal of World Prehistory - Occupation of the humid tropics by Late Holocene food producers depended on the use of vegetative agricultural systems. A small number of vegetative crops from the...     

Types of Geochemical Soil Catenas

By analogy with soil catenas, which are groups of related soils differing from one another as a result of variation in relief and drainage, the author suggests the existence of geochemical soil catenas, in which the lateral migration of chemical elements links the related soils of uplands, slopes, and depressions into a geochemical entity. On the basis of the conditions of migration, soils are divided into geochemically autonomous, eluvial soils on uplands and geochemically subordinate soils on slopes (transaccumulative situations) and in depressions (superaqueous situations). In humid regions, geochemical soil catenas are distinguished mainly on the basis of the mobility of iron and aluminum compounds; in arid regions, mostly in terms of the mobility of the sulfates and chlorides of sodium and calcium. Geochemical soil catenas in the periglacial situations of the Antarctic and the Tien Shan and in the humid subarctic situation of northern Scandinavia were investigated in the field. The field data and the available literature are used to construct a typology of the world's principal geochemical soil catenas and their determinant factors.     

产业结构演进过程及机理探究——以安徽省为例

本文从安徽产业结构的发展过程及现状着手,基于大量的分析资料与统计数据,引入三轴图方法绘制出安徽省及各地区产业结构演进解析图。图解十分直观形象反映出安徽省及各地区产业结构演进的路径与态势,并由此分析出产业结构动态变化的特征及其形成演化机理。最后基于实际情况,提出了产业结构合理化与升级的对策与建议。     

Settlement and settlement continuity in the parish of karlsoey in the middle ages. An analysis based on written sources

Cultural relations in the central Celtic and the Germanic regions during the late LaTene/pre‐Roman iron age have been investigated through a comparison of the fibula material from different sub‐regions. The reliability of results based on occurrence patterns for fibula types has been tested by a direct comparison of the fibulae, without prior type classification. To check the representativity, a detailed analysis has been made of the Northern Germanic region, including also other kinds of artifacts. It appears that cultural relations reflected in similarity of fibulae, dress ornaments and other personal adornments cross the boundaries of the main cultural areas defined through more stable cultural elements, like pottery and burial types and burial customs, while the relations reflected in similar weapons respect these boundaries.     

New Horizons for Regional Geography

Two prominent U.S. geographers outline the framework and mandate of an emerging new regional geography as a tool for understanding rapid and profound changes in the contemporary world. In so doing, they differentiate this new approach to the geographic study of regions from both (a) the traditional practice of regional geography prevailing in the discipline from the mid-19th century and (b) accounts of geography's role in contemporary affairs offered by non-specialists in the mass media (e.g., Kaplan's "revenge of geography"). The authors provide recommendations for, and note the benefits of, a strengthening of regional research and training in geography, while mapping out an expanded role for Eurasian Geography and Economics in disseminating new regional research whose scope extends beyond disciplinary boundaries to embrace current public and political debate. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O100, O180, P000, R110.60 references.     

Progress in the holocene chrono-climatostratigraphy of Polish territory

The Holocene delivers a unique possibility to establish climatic stratigraphic boundaries based on detailed chronostratigraphy reflected in various facies of continental sediments, in their lithological parameters and organic remains. These sediments are dated by the ¹⁴C method in the case of organic remains, by counting annual laminations in lacustrine facies, and by dendrochronological method in the case of fluvial sediments. The existence of well dated profiles enables to reconstruct various climatic parameters like amplitudes of seasonal temperatures, types and frequency of extreme rainfalls and floods and, finally, to distinguish rare rapid changes and most frequent gradual ones. This reconstruction is based on the analogous effects of various types of present-day rainfalls. The current authors present a critical review of existing chronostratigraphic divisions starting from simple millennial division by Mangerud based on Scandinavian palynological stratigraphy of peat-bogs and Starkel’s concept based on fluctuations in rainfall and runoff regime reflected in fluvial and other facies of continental deposits. In the last decades, the calibration of ¹⁴C dates allowed a new approach to be used for the construction of the probability distribution function of these dates in various facies or types of sediments, which formed a background for distinguishing and correlating climatic phases and defining boundaries between them. These approaches have been creating new opportunities for revision of the existing chronostratigraphy. The aim of this paper is to present a revised version of chronostratigraphic division based on climatic fluctuations reflected in various facies of sediments on the territory of Poland and discuss their correlation with other European regions and global climatic changes.     

Gendered divisions of labour in urban crop cultivation in a Kenyan town: implications for livelihood outcomes

This article highlights the labour contributions of men and women in urban crop cultivation in Eldoret, Kenya. Divisions of labour in urban gardening were mediated by social constructs of masculinity and femininity, gender differentials in entitlements and farming knowledge and intra-household power relations. The resulting labour distribution patterns manifested itself in the type of crops men and women took responsibility for, the specific agricultural tasks they performed and the spatial segregation of men's and women's activities and tasks. Traditional gender-related labour boundaries were also challenged and reworked. With regard to livelihood outcomes, women's labour contributed more directly to household food security, although men were increasingly getting involved in subsistence farming, which held prospects for improved productivity and therefore enhanced household food security.     

Defining the community of interest as thematic and cognitive regions

When deciding where to draw the boundaries for electoral districts, officials often strive to ensure that communities of interest are not split up but kept wholly within those boundaries. But what constitutes a community of interest is vague, with legal and academic sources describing either a thematic region with shared demographic and land-use traits, or a cognitive region that is meaningful to people and commonly agreed upon. This study, conducted in the city of Santa Barbara, California, seeks to identify communities of interest at the sub-city level as both thematic regions—by clustering Census tracts and land parcels according to classes of relevant variables—and cognitive regions—by surveying residents about the size and locational extent of their community and finding areas of agreement. We then assess the degree to which the two types of regions overlap as a way to evaluate how well the two meanings correspond. We also examine the amount of overlap between the two sets of regions and the city council electoral districts that were recently created in Santa Barbara. Our study finds that the two types of regions correspond relatively well to each other in this test city, but that the electoral districts correspond more to the thematic regions, understandable given that the district creation made no attempt to survey residents about their beliefs.