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The article presents the author's comments on "The Journal of Animal Ecology," vol. 9 and two books by H.C. Darby "The Medieval Fenland," and "The Draining of the Fens." The author believes that Averil Morley's paper on recolonization of burnt woodland by birds published in the journal is a useful piece of information about ecological succession of animals in Great Britain. He praises Darby for treating the economic development of Fenland in his two books with general interest.

Old concepts become stumbling blocks to human progress. Customs, laws, organizations either must be changed to meet new conditions in a changing social environment or must be discarded entirely. So it is with definitions. Either they must be understood to refer to changed situations or new terms must be invented to meet a radically altered situation. The inherited definition of the rural community is positively inhibiting rural interest in the broader contacts of rural life. The earlier concept of a rural community included a vaguely and indefinitely bounded physical area supposed to be occupied by people who had more or less common interests. Many definitions have been written, but two or three will indicate the trend of thinking. The building of real, local farm communities is perhaps the main task in creating an adequate rural civilization. The present situation in rural life calls for a change in traditional definitions and stress on possible objectives for progress. The change needed is from a territorial or spatial definition of a community to a functional one.

The article present an overview of pamphlets dealing with the most important contemporary problems, represents something relatively new in the U.S. public education. Eleven of the pamphlets now being considered deal specifically with problems related to the post-war world, three are focused on the issue of race relations, and two are concerned with questions of a more abstract nature, namely constitutional rights and the relation between religion and democracy. The bulletin, "Adventures in small-scale rural enterprises in South Carolina" contains a series of human interest stories dealing with some of these enterprises and the people responsible for them. Small rural industries may play an important role in the future economic development of the South. They also offer possibilities for rehabilitating wounded soldiers. Besides making a definite contribution to the production of food, fiber and other things needed for war, such industries provide market outlets for farm products, employ farm people and bring in extra profits for farmers.

This article focuses on investment prospects in the U.S. The article is the result of early research conducted by the Committee for Economic Development, but not a product of that body. The author discusses the immediate prospect of high employment and successful investment, then addresses concerns that the form of financing of investment may lead to depression and unemployment, and finally, addresses possible forms of investment financing that will successfully avoid depression and stagnation. The author presents strategies that will facilitate the flow of cash into equity as opposed to debt, including fiscal policy recommendations relative to tax structure and state and local regulations.

This article focuses on the importance of part time employment in economic and social development. According to the author part-time workers perform their duties under various arrangements. In the most formal arrangement part-time employees are actually on an employer's payroll and work a few days a week or a few hours a day under his direct supervision. Other part-time employees do not work under the employer's direct supervision and are paid on a commission or piece-rate basis. In the legal sense a number of these persons would more properly be called part-time agents, particularly in those cases where the work consists of selling a product or service. The importance of part-time workers changes with the state of the economy. In time of war, for instance, the contribution of part-time workers can probably be considered essential to victory, the contribution is indispensable in the war plants to sustaining or increasing the output of munitions, as well as in the low priority industries which, as a result of compulsory transfers or direction of labor to essential occupations, must depend to a great extent on part-time labor to continue operations.

This article discusses research as a social process in Great Britain. One of the central problems of British society is that of organizing its scientific and technically trained manpower in such a manner that the welfare and security needs are met. The present organization of British science does not contribute much to economic improvement. In the nineteenth century new developments were started because inventors with imagination and energy set about solving practical problems. The aims of contemporary research organization are generally stated in a qualitative fashion. The origins of each new product or process can usually be traced to a few key sources in widely separated areas of fundamental science. The foregoing description of the process by which science is put to use emphasizes the interrelationships which exist at the present stage in the evolution of social organization in research. A complete and balanced managerial set-up for translating fundamental research into new technology and social services can be conveniently sub-divided into a series of essential functions. Each of the functions of research organization requires a special combination of skills and differentiated emphasis in the training of technical workers. The exact relationship and emphasis applied to various functions of research and development varies from industry to industry but.

The article discusses the promotion of economic growth for underdeveloped areas of the world through international co-operation. It is explained that the economic growth of underdeveloped nations of the world is stated to depend upon the fulfillment through international action of two conditions, which includes the provision of technique or know-how, and, second, the supplying of capital funds to the underdeveloped nations. The article focuses on the economic growth and assistance occurring in Venezuela.

This article concentrates on a problem which so far has received only little attention by economists, the role of human resources in the process of economic advancement of underdeveloped areas. This topic has formidable proportions and cannot be treated in full within the framework of this paper. The author confines his remarks, therefore, to a specialized point, the place of entrepreneurship in economic development, and hopes to show, at least by implication, some of the more general problems arising in a consideration of the role played by human factors of production in the process of economic development. A study of economists' opinions on entrepreneurship leads to strange and sometimes contradictory results. Some writers have identified entrepreneurship with the function of uncertainty-bearing, others with the coordination of productive resources, others with the introduction of innovations, and still others with the provision of capital. It is probably true that at different times and under different institutional conditions each of these aspects may have constituted the primary, or at least socially most significant function, of entrepreneurs, and this function was then selected as typical and regarded as the unique contribution of entrepreneurs in the process of production.

This article examines the role of the science teacher in community development. On the assumption that community development is one of the major functions of education, the science teacher as a member of a professional group shares with all other educators the responsibility of facilitating community development. And as a specialist with understanding and convictions about relevance of the method which characterizes his approach to problems, the science teacher has a responsibility for helping members of the community to develop skill in the methods of science.