Two Corn Belt Farms

Case studies of two farms in eastern Iowa illustrate changes in the Corn Belt since World War II. The Hoffman farm was a classic example of a traditional operation that used a three-year rotation of corn, oats and leguminous hay on 160 acres of land. These crops were used to fatten feeder cattle from western range areas and hogs that were farrowed on the farm. This farm operation did not take advantage of opportunities to expand, and it has been sold because it is too small for a successful modern family farm. The Mather farm has been operated by members ol the same family lor five generations. Anders Mather was a superb cattleman who raised crops to fatten range cattle and hogs, but his grandson, Kenneth, has eliminated the livestock operation and concentrates on producing corn and soybeans for sale as cash crops. He has enlarged the farm to more than a thousand acres by buying and renting land. It is an excellent example of a contemporary Corn Belt family farm.     

An Occupational Study to Track the Rise of Adult Male Mule Spinning in Lancashire and Cheshire, 1777–1813

This study utilises occupational data abstracted from parish records to track temporal change in the number of adult males who were spinners in Lancashire and Cheshire. The baptism registers of 1813 show that over 80 per cent of adult male spinners in the two counties lived in thirteen parishes only. Two-thirds of the spinners resided within a radius of 10 miles of Manchester town. Manchester and Stockport, in particular, were at the vanguard. Approximately 60 per cent of the spinners lived in the parishes of Manchester, Stockport, Prestwich with Oldham, Bury, Bolton le Moors and Blackburn. The marriage registers of these places contain no entries for bridegrooms who worked as spinners before 1780, the year of the introduction of Crompton’s mule. Thereafter, their number increased markedly. The adoption of the mule was rapid, faster than has been shown previously. Analysis of the trends in the ratio of spinners-to-weavers suggests that cotton spinning by hand and by jenny became effectively redundant in the six parishes during the 1790s. By this time, female cotton spinners in these places had been displaced. The demise of the jenny in cotton spinning, around twenty-five years after its introduction into Lancashire, implies that it was not a major factor to explain why the industrial revolution took off in Britain rather than elsewhere.     

A saint,an abbot,his documents and her property: power,reform and landholding in the monastery of Homblières under Abbot Berner (949–82)

The monastery of Homblières, after 949, when it was turned from a community of nuns into a reformed Benedictine monastery under the rule of Abbot Berner, left a surprisingly large amount of tenth-century written material, producing both a Vita and a Translatio of Homblières’ patron saint Hunegund, as well as a large collection of charters. These documents allow us crucial insights into how a small monastery managed its possessions and its connections to patrons. This trail permits a closer view of strategies of landholding than can be had with many West Frankish monasteries. This article argues that the community at Homblières acted over several decades to consolidate its lands in specific locations. By producing such extensive documentation of his activities, Berner both solicited further donations for his monastery and protected its existing patrimony from potential threats.     

Polarized light microscopy casts new light on plants used to make tapa

Information about plant materials of construction in artefacts advances knowledge about human history, agriculture, trade, migration and adaptation to new environments. Typically, materials identification in artefacts made from plants is problematic, since processing, age, dirt and surface treatments can mask identifying features, while ethical considerations relating to sampling limit the use of some analytical techniques. The study tests the usefulness of polarized light microscopy for identifying the New Zealand and Pacific plant species used to make tapa, indicating birefringent and morphological characteristics that can be used to differentiate fibres at the level Moraceae (Pacific; from genera Artocarpus, Broussonetia and Ficus) and Malvaceae (New Zealand; from genera Hoheria and Plangianthus).     

Book reviews

VIETNAMESE ANTI‐COLONIALISM. David G. Marr. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1972. 0–520–0813–3. xix, 322 pp. $US11.95.

SUKARNO: A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY. J. D. Legge. Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1972. 0–7139–0244–2. 431 pp. $10.50.

THOMAS STAMFORD RAFFLES 1781–1826. SCHEMER OR REFORMER? Syed Hussein Alatas. Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1971. 0–207–12282–2. 64 pp. $1.50 hard cover, $1.00 paper.

THE BUDGET AND THE PLAN IN CHINA: CENTRAL‐LOCAL ECONOMIC RELATIONS (A.N.U. Contemporary China Papers, No. 3). Audrey Donnithorne. Canberra, 1972. $1.00.

REPORT FROM PEKING: OBSERVATIONS OF A WESTERN DIPLOMAT ON THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION. D. W. Fokkema. Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1971. 0–207–123497. $4.95.

SIR GEORGE SANSOM AND JAPAN. A MEMOIR. Katherine Sansom. The Diplomatic Press, Tallahassee, Florida, 1972. 183 pp. $US15.00.

ALLIANCE IN DECLINE: A STUDY IN ANGLO‐JAPANESE RELATIONS 1908–23. Ian Nish. Athlone, London, 1972. 0485–13133–1. 424 pp. £7.50 (stg.).

PARTNERS IN PEACE: A STUDY IN INDO‐SOVIET RELATIONS. K. Neelkant. Vikas Publishing House, Delhi, 1972. 7069–0218–1. 192 pp.

INDO‐PAKISTAN RELATIONS (1960–65). Dinesh Chandra Jha. Bharati Bhawan, Patna, 1972. 418 pp. Rs.30.00.

THE LATIN AMERICANS. Victor Alba. Praeger, New York, 1969. 392 pp. $US3.95 paper.

CONSTRAINTS AND ADJUSTMENTS IN BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY. Michael Leifer (ed.). Allen & Unwin, London, 1972. 0–04–327039–5. 210 pp. £2.90 (stg.) paper, £5.00 (stg.) hard cover.

BILLION DOLLAR QUESTIONS: ECONOMIC ISSUES IN AUSTRALIA. J. O. N. Perkins. Sun Books, Melbourne, 1972. 0–7251–0147–4. 199 pp. $2.50 paper.

SECRECY. POLITICAL CENSORSHIP IN AUSTRALIA. Jim Spigelman. Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1972. 0–207–12543–0. 194 pp. $2.50 paper.

NEW ZEALAND AND JAPAN 1900–1941. M. P. Lissington. Government Printer (A. R. Shearer), Wellington, 1972. 206 pp. $NZ5.75.

NEW ZEALAND AND THE UNITED STATES: 1840–1944. M. P. Lissington. A. R. Shearer, Government Printer, Wellington, New Zealand, 1972. 114 pp. $NZ3.00.

SOUTHERN AFRICA IN PERSPECTIVE. ESSAYS IN REGIONAL POLITICS. Christian P. Potholm and Richard Dale (eds.). The Free Press, U.S.A. 1972. xiii, 418 pp. $14.25.

SOUTH AFRICA — SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES. Heribert Adam (ed.). Oxford University Press, London, 1971. 340 pp. $10.90.

THE COMMISSARIAT OF ENLIGHTENMENT. SOVIET ORGANIZATION OF THE ARTS AND EDUCATION UNDER LUNACHARSKY, OCTOBER 1917–1921. Sheila Fitzpatrick. Cambridge University Press, 1970, 521–07919–5. xxii, 380 pp. $13.20.

MILITARY MEN. Ward Just. Michael Joseph, London, 1970. 256 pp. $6.80.

NUKLEARE MITWIRKUNG: DEE BUNDESREPUBLEK DEUTSCHLAND IN DER ATLANTISCHEN ALLIANZ 1954–1970. Dieter Mahncke. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York, 1972. 3–11–0018209. xvi, 274 pp.

WESTEUROPAISCHE VERTEIDIGUNGSKOOPERATION. Karl Carstens and Dieter Mahncke (eds.). Munich, R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1972. 3–486–43731–3. 256 pp.     

Communities of Knowledge: Teaching and Learning in Maritime Archaeology

This paper explores the points of contact and divergence between education, training and experience in maritime archaeology. In particular, it is proposed that whilst it is worth developing McGrail’s (Studies in maritime archaeology. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford, 1997) discussion of what should be included when we teach Maritime archaeology, more might be gained from moving beyond individual opinions of instructors. As such, this paper includes an exploration of both my own answers to the questions offered in the call for papers and those of past and present Southampton students. What emerges from this comparison is that by focusing too closely on the specifics of what is (or should be) taught, we miss out on what students actually gain from courses and more broadly what we gain as a community.     

Student field experiences: designing for different instructors and variable weather

This study compares the field experience and development of sense of place (in this case, human attributed meanings and attachments to the field area) in geoscience students on three separate course sections of a six-day introductory geological mapping field trip. Students stayed in a small farm station within their 4 km² field area, worked in groups of three or four, and produced an individual final assessment. Findings from student interviews and pre-post surveys indicated that there were no significant differences in perceptions of the field trip purpose or sense of place between field trip sections, despite differences in instructor pedagogy and sense of place, as well as varied weather conditions. There were significant increases in student sense of place on all field trips, in contrast with previous work on a “roadside” (regional, multi-site) field trip where no significant change in sense of place occurred. In-field observations and instructor interviews identified key characteristics that supported similar sense of place and experiences on all trips: (1) consistent intended learning outcomes, (2) a carefully selected and immersive field area valued by instructors, and (3) an assessment connected to the landscape/field area with flexibility in its implementation, especially when faced with adverse weather conditions.