Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production particular to the Scottish Highlands, the islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man. Within the 19th-century townships, individual crofts were established on the better land, and a large area of poorer-quality hill ground was shared by all the crofters of the township for grazing of their livestock. In the 21st century, crofting is found predominantly in the rural Western and Northern Isles and in the coastal fringes of the western and northern Scottish mainland.

History

Origins and history before 1886
Crofting communities were a product of the Highland Clearances (though individual crofts had existed before the clearances). They replaced the farms or bailtean, which had common grazing and arable open fields operated on the run rig system. This change was typically associated with two things. Firstly the tacksmen were steadily eliminated over the last quarter of the 18th century. A tacksman (a member of the daoine uaisle, sometimes described as "gentry" in English) was the holder of a lease or "tack" from the landowner. Where a lease was for a baile, the tacksman usually sublet to the farming tenants and may have provided some management oversight. By preventing this section of society from sub-letting, the landlords obtained all of the rent paid by those who worked the land. Secondly, landowners replaced the older farming methods with pastoral systems. In early cases, these were based on cattle. Much more common was the introduction of extensive sheep farms. In many clearances, the tenants of inland farms were moved to crofting communities in coastal areas, leaving the land they had left for sheep. This type of clearance was carried out mostly until the 1820s.

Croft work was hard, back-breaking work which yielded a subsistence living. Aside from hay and oats, usually root vegetables, potatoes or cabbages were grown and peat would be cut by hand and left outside in various characteristic patterns of stacks to dry so as to serve later for fuel or sometimes for bedding for animals. Most crofters had sheep to shear and lamb. Some crofters had the care of small numbers of cattle.

The crofts created by clearance were not intended to support all the needs of those who lived there and consequently were restricted in size to a few acres of arable land with surrounding shared grazing. Landlords intended their crofting tenants to work in various industries, such as fishing or kelp. A contemporary estimate was that a crofter needed to carry out 200 days of work away from his croft in order to avoid destitution. In the second half of the 19th century, many crofters provided a substantial migrant workforce, especially for lowland farms.

Crofting communities in the period 1846-56 were badly hit by the Highland Potato Famine. The small arable plots had meant that the potato was an essential crop, due to its high productivity. The arrival of potato blight (and the collapse of the kelp industry a few years before) made some crofting communities inviable. This gave rise to the second phase of the Highland Clearances, when many tenants left the Highlands, often emigrating. In 1852, in response to the poverty in the Highlands, Sir Charles Trevelyan founded the Highland and Island Emigration Society, designed to save poor families from starvation by emigration to Australia.

In 1883, the Napier Commission was established. Though its recommendations were not accepted, the problem of poverty and insecurity of tenure in the Highlands was investigated. Consequent on this, the first Scottish crofting legislation of 1886 was enacted.

History 1886 onwards
The Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 provided for security of tenure, a key issue as most crofters remain tenants. The Act encouraged tenants to improve the land under their control, as it ensured that the control could be transferred within families and passed to future generations.

Crofters were given the right to purchase their individual crofts in 1976. In 2003, as part of the Land Reform Act, crofting community bodies were provided with the right to purchase eligible croft land associated with the local crofting community.

In 1974 the Laidhay Croft Museum near Dunbeath in Caithness was opened to preserve and enhance a two hundred year old thatched crofting longhouse with its agricultural buildings (barn and stables). The home is fully furnished and there are displayed farm and stable equipment.

In 2018 a section of the Sutherland Estate was bought out by a crofting community initiative,  Garbh Allt Community Initiative Estate. The area amounted to 1,214 hectares (3,000 acres) of land and included the crofting townships of Gartymore, Portgower, Marrel and West Helmsdale. The £250,000 purchase money was made available in the form of two major contributions. These were: £273,000 from the Scottish government funded Scottish Land Fund; and £29,918 Beatrice Partnership Fund (a body connected to Beatrice windfarm in the Outer Moray Firth). The transfer of ownership was in favour of crofters, some of whom were descendants of people removed from the Sutherland Estate two centuries previously.

Statutory codes
A key feature of crofting tenure is the highly developed network of legislation that has evolved since 1886. Crofting has been established and regulated in accordance with a series of statutes that have varied over time. The following six statutes have been repealed: the Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886; the Small Landholders (Scotland) Act 1911; the Small Landholders and Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1931; the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1955; the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1961; and the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 1976. In 1993 there was a consolidation of the legislation into the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993.

As at 2023, the following four statutes together comprise the code of legislation applicable to crofting: the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993; the Crofting Reform etc Act 2007; the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010; the Crofting (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2013.

The Crofting Register
The Crofting Register is a public record available for consultation for free. It is kept by the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland. As at 12 September 2023 there were 9288 registered crofts and 335 registered common grazings. Registration can be voluntary but is compulsory in some circumstances. The Keeper offers online guidance in the form of a list as to events that trigger a mandatory registration. Registered boundaries of crofts are shown on a map and they are definitive. First registration may give rise to boundary disputes. The Scottish Land Court will determine the boundary and in the case of insufficient evidence has the power to fix the boundary where it thinks is appropriate.

Crofting terms and management
A crofting tenancy is one from year to year but it carries security of tenure under the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 and in practice may therefore continue indefinitely whilst the tenant fulfils the terms of the tenancy. This reflects the basic protection granted in 1886. Other retained key features are now also contained in the consolidation of the 1993 Act. These are a right to compensation for improvements to the land, the right to pay a fair rent, and the right of bequest of the tenancy to a spouse or his family's next generation.

A valid crofting agreement can only be made with the prior consent of the Crofting Commission. Croft tenants are subject to the statutory conditions of tenure contained in section 5 and Schedule 2 of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993. Additionally, since 2010 they are subject to the statutory duties. These apply to all tenancies whether held under a written agreement or an oral agreement. The written terms are invalid in so far as they are inconsistent with the statutory provisions. Grazings regulations prevail over the terms of a tenancy agreement. These are regulations created by the crofters to manage their common grazings. The Scottish Government offers Guidance and a Regulations template to assist in the creation of rules. The template draft has been approved by the Crofting Commission. As of 12 June 2023 applications can be made online to the Crofting Commission in respect of assignations, decroftings, divisions and sublets.

A person taking an interest from the landlord takes subject to the rights of the crofter. In a case where almost a century had elapsed since the creation of an interest by the landlord but where there had been no formal resumption by permission obtained from the Commission or the Scottish Land Court, the tenant was able to reclaim as part of the croft land that had been fenced off and supposedly taken away by such a transaction.

Requirements

Tenants and owner-occupier crofters are required to comply with a range of duties specified in sections 5AA to 5C and 19C of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 as amended. There is a duty to be ordinarily resident within 32 km of the croft. If the croft is the sole dwelling and the crofter's family are residents while the croft is away this would probably be accepted as ordinarily resident. Other circumstances involving other places of residence would require to be assessed individually. In addition to the duty of residential tenants and owner-occupiers crofters are required to ensure the croft is cultivated, maintained and not neglected or misused.

Practice

Characteristics of crofting
Crofting is a traditional social system in Scotland defined by small-scale food production. Crofting is characterised by its common working communities, or "townships". Individual crofts are typically established on  of in-bye for better quality forage, arable and vegetable production. Each township manages poorer-quality hill ground as common grazing for cattle and sheep.

From the early days, certain improvements were done to render land more amenable to cultivation. In particular, where the ground was heavy peat, the creation of ditches (and their regular maintenance) was essential. A feature probably special to crofting practice was the establishing of Lazy Beds (Gaelic: fiannegan). These were areas where turfs had been cut so two layers of turf lay on top of one another. Seaweed or kelp could be spread in between these layers to fertilise the soil. This left lower areas around the beds that could then act as drainage conduits.

Land use in the crofting counties is constrained by climate, soils, and topography. Since the late 20th century, the government has classified virtually all of the agricultural land in the Highlands and Islands as Severely Disadvantaged, under the terms of the Less Favoured Area (LFA) Directive, yet these areas reported in 2008-9 receiving the lowest LFA payments.  Most crofters cannot survive economically by crofting agriculture alone, and they pursue a number of other activities to earn their livelihood.

The underlying potential of the crofting areas to produce a diverse local landscape and a more satisfactory diet for local people can be explored by analysis taking the agricultural values and practices of the pre-capitalist clan system in order to critique the view that the current Less Favoured Areas are intrinsically poorer.  On that basis, "traditional" landscape and livestock-dominated practices are no more than the outcome of market dependency and should not be regarded as the inevitable measure of the potential of the land.

Economic significance
Despite its challenges, crofting is important to the Highlands and Islands. In 2014–2015 there were 19,422 crofts, with 15,388 crofters. Some crofters have the tenancy of more than one croft, and in-croft absenteeism means that tenancies are held but crofts are not farmed. About 33,000 family members lived in crofting households, or around 10% of the population of the Highlands and Islands. Crofting households represented around 30% of those in the rural areas of the Highlands, and up to 65% of households in Shetland, the Western Isles, and Skye. There were 770,000 hectares under crofting tenure, roughly 25% of the agricultural land area in the Crofting Counties. Crofters held around 20% of all beef cattle (120,000 head) and 45% of breeding ewes (1.5 million sheep).

Regulatory supervision
Crofting generally is regulated by the Crofting Commission, a public body of the Scottish Government. The activities of the Crofting Commission are regularly publicly reported. Section 51 of the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 requires the Scottish Ministers to report to the Scottish Parliament on the economic condition of crofting and on steps taken by the Government and by the Crofting Commission to support crofting. The 2019-2022 Report is the most recent.

Gaelic Language
Historically, crofting has been linked to the Scottish Gaelic language. The Scottish Government supports the Gaelic language in the Gaelic Language Plan. The plan for 2022-2027 derives from the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005. In relation to crofting, the Scottish Land Court must accommodate the Scottish Gaelic language including by having a Gaelic-speaking member of the Court. Lord Minginish (Chairman of the Scottish Land Court 2014-2022) continues to hold office  as a Gaelic-speaking member of the Court. There are provisions to ensure that at all times at least one member of the Crofting Commission (whether elected or appointed) is a Gaelic language speaker.

Case Reports
Reports of crofting litigation are a resource designed for lawyers that gives detailed information as to the families and the farms featured in the narrative. Since 1912 crofting cases in the Scottish Land Court have been reported, and are available. They are scattered in several series and locations. Where such cases are dealt with on appeal to the Court of Session, they can be traced online.

Gallery
Crofting landscapes show great beauty but also the remote, harsh and unyielding nature of the terrain. Often historically combined with fishing or the exploitation of peat, potash, or seaweed, agriculture operates on an uneconomic scale. Consequently other industries connected to wool such as weaving or knitting, or to distillery products such as whisky and gin have developed. In more recent times, wind-farming has created some additional financial support. Features of crofting townships include shared grazing areas.

See also

 Agriculture in Scotland
 Croft
 Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886
 Highland Clearances
 Highland and Island Emigration Society
 Highland Potato Famine

References

External links

The Crofting Commission
The Crofting Register
The Scottish Crofting Federation
The Scottish Land Court

Land tenure
Gaelic culture
Agriculture
Highland Clearances
Scotland
Landscape
Abandoned buildings and structures
Outer Hebrides
Shetland-related lists
Shetland
Orkney
Orkney-related lists
Scotland Crofting reports

Crofting


A Choice of Enemies is the third novel by Canadian author Mordecai Richler. It was first published in 1957 by André Deutsch.

Plot and setting
The novel is set in London in the 1950s. A group of dissident writers and filmmakers from Canada and the United States settle in England to escape the McCarthy era witch hunt.
Problems ensue after Norman Price, a former academic turned pulp writer, befriends a mysterious German refugee and is ostracized by the others. Their rigid idealism devolves into tyranny and Norman decides that "all alliances are discredited." He faces a personal dilemma where his choice of enemies is not clear.

Theme
Richler uses biting wit, pointed irony and elements of surrealism to construct a parable reflecting the moral doubt and decay of modern society.

New Canadian Library
1957 novels
Novels by Mordecai Richler
Novels set in London
Novels about writers
André Deutsch books

A Choice of Enemies


The Ray Bradbury Theater is an anthology series that ran for three seasons on First Choice Superchannel in Canada and HBO in the United States from 1985 to 1986, and then on USA Network, running for four additional seasons from 1988 to 1992; episodes aired on the Global Television Network in Canada from 1991 to 1994. It was shown in reruns on the Sci Fi Channel and later on the Retro Television Network. It currently airs on Comet and can be streamed on IMDb TV, Peacock, Pluto TV and The Roku Channel.

All 65 episodes were written by Ray Bradbury, based on short stories or novels he wrote, including "A Sound of Thunder", "Marionettes, Inc.", "Banshee", "The Playground", "Mars is Heaven", "Usher II", "The Jar", "The Long Rain", "The Veldt", "The Small Assassin", "The Pedestrian", "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl", "Here There Be Tygers", "The Toynbee Convector", and "Sun and Shadow".

Many of the episodes focused on only one of Bradbury's original works. However, Bradbury occasionally included elements from his other works. "Marionettes, Inc." featured Fantoccini, a character from "I Sing the Body Electric!". "Gotcha!" included an opening sequence taken from "The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair". Characters were renamed, and elements added to the original works to expand the story to 23–28 minutes or to better suit the television medium.

Each episode would begin with a shot of Bradbury in his office, gazing over mementos of his life, which he states (in narrative) are used to spark ideas for stories. During the first season, Bradbury sometimes appeared on-screen in brief vignettes introducing the story. During the second season, Bradbury provided the opening narration with no specific embellishment concerning the episode. During the third season, a foreshortened version of the narration was used and Bradbury would add specific comments relevant to the episode presented. During the fourth and later seasons, a slightly shorter generic narration was used with no additional comments.

Famous actors appearing in the series included Richard Kiley, Paul Le Mat, Eileen Brennan, James Coco, William Shatner, Peter O'Toole, Patrick Macnee, Jeff Goldblum, Drew Barrymore, Hal Linden, Michael Ironside, Robert Vaughn, Eugene Levy, Saul Rubinek, Paul Gross, Donald Pleasence, Denholm Elliott, David Ogden Stiers, John Saxon, Harold Gould, Bruce Weitz, Barry Morse, Eddie Albert, David Carradine, Sally Kellerman, Vincent Gardenia, Robert Culp, Shawn Ashmore, Richard Benjamin, John Vernon, Elliott Gould, Tyne Daly, Lucy Lawless, Jean Stapleton, Marc Singer, Michael Hurst, Louise Fletcher, Magali Noël, John Glover, Howard Hesseman, Leslie Nielsen, Megan Follows, Shelley Duvall, and James Whitmore.

In the U.S., HBO originally aired the show for its first season, then it was moved to the USA Network from its second season onwards.

References

External links

Ray Bradbury Theater at bradburymedia.co.uk
"The Playground" episode synopsis by Phil Nichols

HBO original programming
USA Network original programming
1980s American science fiction television series
1990s American science fiction television series
1980s Canadian science fiction television series
1990s Canadian science fiction television series
1985 American television series debuts
1992 American television series endings
1985 Canadian television series debuts
1992 Canadian television series endings
1980s American anthology television series
English-language television shows
Adaptations of works by Ray Bradbury
Science fiction anthology television series
Television series by Alliance Atlantis
Television shows based on short fiction
Television series by South Pacific Pictures

The Ray Bradbury Theater


In the Protestant Reformation, a number of people criticizes the Roman Catholic Church. People such as Martin Luther, Jean Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli or Jan Hus were reformers: In the end, each of them had followers which started their own church. Today, most of these Churches are known as Protestant. In the European wars of religion, countries, but also local leaders fought for influence. Most of the time one side of the warring fraction was Catholics, the other was Protestants.
Examples of these wars:
Hussite wars (1419-34)
Three Dalecarlian rebellions (1524-31)
German Peasants' War
Eighty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
Huguenot rebellions

Wars involving Europe

European wars of religion


Harry Chapman Pincher (29 March 1914 – 5 August 2014) was an Indian-born British journalist, historian, and novelist.

Early life
Pincher was born on 29 March 1914 in Ambala, Punjab. His father was from Britain and his mother was American. Pincher studied at Darlington Grammar School and King's College London.

His work
Pincher wrote a series of books on supposed KGB spies in the West, mostly members of the British ruling class whom he believed were traitors in the service of the KGB. Among these were Roger Hollis, former head of MI5, and Harold Wilson, twice Prime Minister in the 1960s and 70s.

Many of these ideas had come from James Jesus Angleton, former CIA counterespionage chief. Angleton's career ended when his many allegations were not supported with appropriate evidence. Among his more outrageous claims was that Canadian Prime Ministers Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau were agents of the Soviet Union.

Another source was Peter Wright, a former assistant director of MI5. The British Government tried to prevent the publication of Wright's own Spycatcher (1987), which covered much the same ground as Pincher's Their trade is treachery. Wright had published in Australia, and the Australian court case ran on for years with no success. In the event, nothing was proved against Hollis, who was the main target of Their trade is treachery. Later British Prime Ministers stated that Hollis was a loyal servant of the Crown, and that a great injustice had been done to him by the Pincher and Wright books.

Death
Pincher died on 5 August 2014 at the age of 100.

References

1914 births
2014 deaths
British journalists
British historians
British centenarians

Chapman Pincher


St Sampson's Church is the Church of England parish church of the village of Golant, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom; it is dedicated to St Sampson of Dol.

St Sampson's features in Simon Jenkins's book England's Thousand Best Churches, in which it is described as "warm and welcoming". The poet John Betjeman remarked that its pews were "extremely uncomfortable, recall the fidgets of Gus and Flora in Ravenshoe". It is open every day of the year, holds services every Sunday and evening prayer every Thursday evening at 6 o'clock. Its choir sings every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month.

History

Saint Samson of Dol
Although Cornwall has more saints than any other county in the UK, Saint Sampson is one of the better known ones. He sometimes stayed in Golant while travelling to Brittany and became the archbishop of Dol.
Many Cornish saints travelling from Ireland to France via the south Cornish coast stopped on the way (sometimes in or near the village). There is now a footpath, the Saints' Way, popular with walkers which runs from Padstow on the north coast to Fowey passing through the village and past the church.

Later history
Until 1281 this church was a chapelry of Tywardreath and the people of Golant were required to contribute to the upkeep of Tywardreath church. In the period c. 1460 to 1508 the chapel at Golant was rebuilt and in 1508 they refused to make these contributions. The church and its churchyard were consecrated by a suffragan bishop (acting for Hugh Oldham, the Bishop of Exeter). Before that date burials had to be made at Tywardreath. The nave roof has inscriptions recording that its rebuilding was the work of various craft guilds while the south aisle roof was given by the Colquite family. There is a holy well near the porch enclosed in a 15th-century wellhouse.

Features of interest
St Sampson is portrayed in some of the stained glass windows in the church. The church has a ring of five bells. The organ was installed in 1995 and is a hybrid using some of the pipes from an organ originally in St Michael's Church, Newquay, and also some from the organ in Paul Parish Church. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register

List of the Vicars of Golant
The Vicars of Golant:

1528 Richard Baker
1554 William Boyne
1556 Thomas Boyne
1559 Roger Prior
1571 Nicholas Maine
1577 Benedict Tyack
1580 James Penhalurick
1615 Daniel Wetherell
???? Thomas Hore
1640 George Brush
1677 Thomas Sampson
1735 Robert Blatchford
1769 Peter Coryton
1770 R. Eastcott
1780 Wymond Cory
1820 Thomas Pearce
1841 Charles Lyne
1865 George Ross
1888 H. A. Hill
1892 A. H. Langridge
1894 B. F. Trusted
1900 W. H. Sharpe
1902 H. Lines
1919 E. A. L. Clarke
1925 H. Edwards
1934 L. W. Stenson Stenson
1950 H. P. Osborne
1951 W. G. Hayward
1958 R. J. M. May
1963 G. E. J. Whitmore
1965 William J. Hall
1974 M. J. Oatey
[--?--] (priest in charge) Philip de Grey-Warter

References

External links

Church of England church buildings in Cornwall
Grade I listed churches in Cornwall

St Sampson's Church, Golant


Erich Fried (6 May 1921 – 22 November 1988) was an Austrian-born poet, writer, and translator. He initially became known to a broader public in both Germany and Austria for his political poetry, and later for his love poems. As a writer, he mostly wrote plays and short novels. He also translated works by different English writers from English into German, most notably works by William Shakespeare.

He was born in Vienna, Austria, but fled to England after the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938. He settled in London and adopted British nationality in 1949. His first official visit back to Vienna was in 1962.

Biography

Born to Jewish parents Nelly and Hugo Fried in Vienna, he was a child actor and from an early age wrote political essays and poetry. He fled to London after his father was murdered by the Gestapo after the Anschluss (i.e. annexation of Austria) by Nazi Germany.

During World War II, he did casual work as a librarian and a factory hand. He arranged also for his mother to leave Nazi-occupied Austria, as well as helping many other Jews to come to the UK. He joined Young Austria, a left-wing emigrant youth movement, but left in 1943 in protest of its growing Stalinist tendencies. In 1944, he married Maria Marburg, shortly before the birth of his son Hans. During the same year, his first volume of poetry was published. He separated from Maria in 1946.

Fried's German translation of Masefield's Good Friday was broadcast on the BBC German Service in 1951. He divorced Maria in 1952. In the same year, he married Nan Spence Eichner, with whom he had two children; David (b. 1958) and Katherine (b. 1961). From 1952 to 1968, he worked as a political commentator for the BBC German Service. He translated works by Shakespeare, T. S. Eliot, and Dylan Thomas. In 1962, he returned to Vienna for the first time.  Erich and Nan divorced in 1965. In 1965, he married for a third time, wedding Catherine Boswell with whom he had three children; Petra (b. 1965), Klaus, and Thomas (b. 1969).

He published several volumes of poetry as well as radio plays and a novel. His work was sometimes controversial, including attacks on the Zionist movement and support for left-wing causes. His work was mainly published in the West, but in 1969, a selection of his poetry was published in the GDR poetry series Poesiealbum, and his Dylan Thomas translations were published in that same series in 1974. The composer Hans Werner Henze set two of Fried's poems for his song-cycle Voices (1973).

In 1982, he regained his Austrian nationality, though he also retained the British nationality he had adopted in 1949. He died of intestinal cancer in Baden-Baden, West Germany, in 1988 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London.

An Austrian literary prize is named in his honour, more specifically the Erich Fried Prize.

Works
 Drei Gebete aus London (Three Prayers from London), 1945
 Ein Soldat und ein Mädchen (A Soldier and a Girl), 1960
 Reich der Steine, 1963
 Warngedichte (Warning Poems), 1964
 Überlegungen, 1964
 Kinder und Narren, 1965
 und Vietnam und (and Vietnam and), 1966
 Anfechtungen, 1967
 Die Beine der größeren Lügen, 1969
 Poesiealbum, 1969
 Unter Nebenfeinden, 1970
 Die Freiheit den Mund aufzumachen, 1972
 Höre Israel, 1974
 So kam ich unter die Deutschen, 1977
 100 Gedichte ohne Vaterland, 1978
 Liebesgedichte (Love Poems), 1979
 Es ist was es ist (It is what it is), 1983
 Um Klarheit, 1985
 Mitunter sogar Lachen, 1986

Translations of Erich Fried's Works into English
 Arden Must Die: An Opera on the Death of the Wealthy Arden of Faversham. (Original title: Arden muss sterben). Translated by Geoffrey Skelton. London: Schott 1967; New York: Associated Music Publishers 1967
 Last Honours. A selection of poems translated by Georg Rapp. London: Turret 1968
 On Pain of Seeing. A selection of poems translated by Georg Rapp. London: Rapp and Whiting 1969; Chicago: Swallow Press 1969
 100 Poems Without a Country (identical in most parts with the original 100 Gedichte ohne Vaterland). Translated by Stuart Hood and Georg Rapp. London: John Calder 1978; New York: Red Dust 1980
 Love Poems. Bilingual edition. A selection of poems from Liebesgedichte (1979) and Es ist was es ist (1983), translated by Stuart Hood. London: Calder Publication Limited Riverrun Press 1991. New, revised edition Alma Classics Ltd, 2011
 Children and Fools. A selection of 34 stories translated by Martin Chalmers. London: Serpent's Tail 1993
There are as well translations of single poems in different anthologies.

References

External links

1921 births
1988 deaths
Anti-Zionist Jews
Austrian essayists
Austrian male poets
Jewish poets
Georg Büchner Prize winners
20th-century Austrian poets
Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery
Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United Kingdom
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
20th-century British poets
British male poets
20th-century British essayists
20th-century British male writers

Erich Fried


Phonogram Incorporated was started in 1970 as a successor to Philips Phonographic Industries, a unit of the Grammophon-Philips Group (GPG), a joint venture of Philips N.V. of the Netherlands and Siemens A.G. of Germany.

Phonogram was the name of a parent company that owned and or distributed many different record labels. Phonogram was never a record label as such, but a holding company for labels which included Philips, Fontana, Vertigo and Mercury and many other licensed labels.

History

In 1972 Grammophon-Philips Group was reorganized as The PolyGram Group. Following PolyGram's acquisition of Mercury in the United States, the corporate name was changed from Mercury Record Productions, Inc., to Phonogram, Inc. In the U.S. Phonogram artists were generally released on Mercury Records, but the label is independent from its U.K. counterpart. By 1982, Mercury and all other PolyGram owned labels including, RSO, Polydor, Total Experience and Casablanca carried the following wording "Manufactured And Marketed by PolyGram Records" with the PolyGram Records logo.

In the United Kingdom, Phonogram was the holding company for Philips Records, which was established in 1953 and also launched the Fontana label in 1958. As well as producing their own recordings many of which became U.K. hits, Philips/Fontana licensed the rights from Columbia Records (U.S.) to release and distribute their product from 1953 until the end of 1964. After that time, Columbia U.S. set up their own marketing and production unit in the UK in Theobalds Road, London, having acquired Oriole Records and its record-pressing plant that had prospered in manufacturing discs for U.K. budget labels including Embassy, sold through Woolworths. U.S. Columbia was unable to use the "Columbia" trademark outside the United States and Canada as it had already been copyrighted overseas by EMI. Therefore, U.S. Columbia product was released in most territories on the CBS record label.

In 1977 Frank Zappa negotiated a distribution agreement with Phonogram for his Zappa Records label. Due to legal pressure from Zappa's previous distributor Warner Bros. Records, Zappa and Phonogram were forced to shelve a planned 4-LP box set called Läther (pronounced "Leather".) Phonogram did distribute 3 Zappa albums in the US and Canada, but the agreement ended in 1980. According to Zappa, this was because a Phonogram executive objected to the lyrics of a Zappa single titled I Don't Wanna Get Drafted. Phonogram president Robert Sherwood disputed Zappa's version of the story, insisting that they did not want to release a single without the support of a full-length album.

Releases in Europe were issued by Vertigo and Philips and carried the "Marketed by Phonogram" wording with the Phonogram logo. Phonogram also licensed recordings from small U.S. record labels for European release. Among these were Avco, Sire, Janus, Westbound, All Platinum, and Chess.

De-establishment

In 1997, all PolyGram units still using the Phonogram name were renamed Mercury Records. By that time, Mercury had become PolyGram's flagship label. PolyGram continued until 1998, when the company was purchased by Seagram and merged with Universal Music Group. Philips Records UK and Phonogram UK still have their own websites at WIX.

See also
 Lists of record labels

References

American record labels
British record labels
Record labels established in 1970
Joint ventures
Philips
Pop record labels

Phonogram Inc.


Halfway Rock Lighthouse is a lighthouse located on a barren ledge in Casco Bay, Maine. The lighthouse tower, which has a height of , and the attached ex-boathouse are all that remains, as the other buildings have been taken away in storms. The name "Halfway Rock" comes from the position of the rock which is halfway between Cape Elizabeth and Cape Small, the southwest and northeast extremities of Casco Bay, which are about  apart.

Halfway Rock Light was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Halfway Rock Light Station on March 14, 1988.

Halfway Rock Light Station was purchased in 2014 by a private individual, Ford Reiche, per DIY Network's Building Off the Grid program that shows the reclamation and restoration of the property.

History
The need for a lighthouse on Halfway Rock first came to attention when, in the year 1835, a ship called Samuel ran aground on the rock during a storm. Because the ledge is only ten feet above high tide on a calm day, it becomes hard to see during storms. The cry for a lighthouse was ignored in Washington until, again, in 1861, a ship ran aground on Halfway Rock. This time, it was taken a bit more seriously. Construction began, but was delayed time and time again due to lack of supplies and lack of workmen. Ten years later, in 1871, the first light shone from Halfway Rock, as a new light had been completed. The keepers' quarters were originally inside the lighthouse tower. An 1888 boathouse contained additional living space for the keepers in its upper story.

The light was originally produced by a third-order Fresnel lens.  Its characteristic was fixed white punctuated by a red flash once every minute. A fog bell was brought to the rock in 1887. It had a bit of success, but as technology kept coming out with new innovations, the bell was replaced with a fog "trumpet" in 1905. Since this was a difficult lighthouse station to reach, in the mid-1930s, the Coast Guard began bringing a tender to bring the men onto the mainland and back out to the rock. In addition to this, there was a helicopter landing pad in case of emergency. The light was automated in 1975 and the keepers were removed. The marine railway was destroyed by the 1991 Perfect Storm. The old Fresnel lens is now at the museum at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT; the active optic is a VRB-25. The attached wood building was badly damaged by storms in 2007. The lighthouse was licensed to the American Lighthouse Foundation, and the organization raised funds for its restoration.

The Halfway Rock Light was sold at auction for $283,000 in September 2014. The historic building restoration was the subject of a 2017 episode of Building Off the Grid.

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Cumberland County, Maine

References

 Pictures of the inside of Halfway Rock Light
 Ken Rouleau's Year at Halfway Rock

Lighthouses completed in 1871
Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Lighthouses in Cumberland County, Maine
Buildings and structures in Harpswell, Maine
Casco Bay
National Register of Historic Places in Cumberland County, Maine

Halfway Rock Light


Tuscia is a historical region of Italy that comprised the territories under Etruscan influence and the name adopted for Etruria after the Roman conquest.

From the Middle Ages the region was divided into three macro-areas: the "Roman Tuscia", corresponding to northern Lazio with the ancient Papal province of the Patrimony of St. Peter, which today is equivalent to the province of Viterbo and the northern part of the province of Rome north up to Lake Bracciano; the "ducal Tuscia", which included the territories of Lazio and Umbria subject to the Duchy of Spoleto, which was later also incorporated into the papal territories; and the "Lombard Tuscia", roughly the current Tuscany, including the territories subjected to the Lombards and constituting the Duchy of Tuscia.

Villages
Civitella d'Agliano
Castel Cellesi
Vejano

References

External links

Geographical, historical and cultural regions of Italy
Geography of Lazio
Geography of Tuscany
Geography of Umbria

Tuscia


ʻŪfia (= to cover) and Latā (= clouded(?)) are the proper names of two clouds in the myth of Sisimataʻilaʻā, the son of the sun. When Sisimataʻilaʻā wanted to speak with his father, he had to wait until the latter rose and then tell him about his intended marriage to Fatafehi, the Tuʻi Tonga's daughter before the sun rose too high. For two days Sisimataʻilaʻā failed as he fell asleep shortly before sunrise and when he awoke the sun was too high in the sky and could not retrace his daily path. But the third morning he succeeded. The sun saw him and pulled the clouds ʻŪfia and Latā to cover him and his son from the rest of the world so that they could speak in private.

Poets use the names as a reference to clouds, especially those in the morning along the eastern horizon. As such they can also serve as a navigational direction. Examples:

… Sky times 3, sky times 4
there live the covered and the clouded
it is a different sky, the raining sky
and it covers the clear sky …

Birds in flight over the harbour
gliding in contrast with the dawn
playing in the distance beyond the clouds
there where light lies hidden …

… The sun is merging with the tree-topped
and there arising is ʻŪfia and Latā
shout hurray be thronged with joy …

Clouds are supposed to reside in the 3rd of 4th sky.

ʻŪfia mo Latā/en


Ribeirão Pires (Pires Stream) is a city in the Metropolitan Region of the city of São Paulo, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It is part of the "ABC Region." The population is 124,159 (2020 est.) in an area of 99.1 km2. The elevation is 763 m.

Its neighboring cities are Ferraz de Vasconcelos to the north, Suzano to the northeast and east, Rio Grande da Serra to the southeast and south, Santo André southwest, and Mauá northwest. The city is served by trains from Line 10 of CPTM. It became its own municipality in 1953, following its emancipation from Santo André.

Notable people

Willian
Paulo Szot

References

Municipalities in São Paulo (state)

Ribeirão Pires


The Banjara are an ethnic trading group which may have origins in the Mewar region of what is now the state of Rajasthan, India

Etymology
The Gor usually refer to themselves as Banjaras and outsiders as Kor but this usage does not extend outside their own community. A related usage is Gor Mati or Gormati, meaning Own People.  Motiraj Rathod believes that the community became known as banjara from around the fourteenth century AD and but previously had some association with the Laman, who claim a 3000-year history.

Irfan Habib believes the origin of banjara lies in the Sanskrit word variously rendered as vanij, vanik and banik, as does the name of the Bania caste, which historically was India's "pre-eminent" trading community. However, According to B. G. Halbar, the word Banjara is derived from the Sanskrit word vana chara.

Despite the community adopting a multitude of languages, Banjara is used throughout India, although in Karnataka the name is altered to Banijagaru. A survey conducted in 1968 by the All India Banjara Seva Sangh, a caste association, recorded 27 synonyms and 17 sub-groups.

History
According to author J. J. Roy Burman, Banjaras have settled across Rajasthan and other parts of India. Together with the Bhopa, Domba and Kalbelia, they are sometimes called the "Gypsies of India". Professor D. B. Naik says that, "There are so many cultural similarities in the Roma Gypsies and the Banjara Lambanis".

Together with the Bhopa, Domba and Kalbelia, they are sometimes called the "Gypsies of India". Professor D. B. Naik says that, "There are so many cultural similarities in the Roma Gypsies and the Banjara Lambanis".

Author  B. G. Halbar says that, Most of nomadic communities believe  that they are descended from Rajput ancestry. All these nomadic tribal groups who claim Rajput ancestry says that during the time of Mughal domination they were retreated to the forests and vowed to return only when the foreign influence had gone. B. G. Halbar says they appear to be of mixed ethnicity, possibly originating in  north-central India. However, Habib notes that their constituent groups may not in fact share a common origin, with the theories that suggest otherwise reflecting the systemic bias of nineteenth-century British ethnographers who were keen to create simple classifications. Laxman Satya notes that "Their status as Banjaras was circumscribed by the colonial state disregarding the rich diversity that existed among various groups".

Although not referred to as Banjara until the sixteenth century, Habib believes that the royal court chroniclers Ziauddin Barani and Shaikh Nasiruddin documented them operating in the Delhi Sultanate some centuries earlier, around the time of the rule of Alauddin Khalji. Halbar dates things earlier, suggesting that Dandin, a Sanskrit writer who lived in the sixth century, refers to them but, again, not by name.

Activities
Banjaras were historically pastoralists, traders, expert breeders and transporters of goods on the inland regions of India, for which they used boats, carts, camels, oxen, donkeys and sometimes the relatively scarce horse, hence controlling a large section of trade and economy. The mode of transport depended upon the terrain; for example, camels and donkeys were better suited to the highlands which carts could not negotiate, whilst oxen were able to progress better through wet lowland areas. Their prowess in negotiating thick forests was particularly prized. They often travelled in groups for protection, this tanda being led by an elected headman variously described as a muqaddam, nayak or naik. Such tandas usually comprised carriage of one specific product and thus were essentially a combined trade operation. They could be huge assemblies, some being recorded as comprising 190,000 beasts, and they also serviced the needs of armies, whose movements naturally followed the same trade and caravan routes. The Duke of Wellington used them for that purpose in his campaign against the Maratha Confederacy around the late 1790s and Jahangir, a Mughal emperor who reigned in the early seventeenth century, described them as

Some Banjara subgroups engaged in trading specific goods but most traded in anything that might make them money - the range was vast, encompassing plains produce such as oilseed, sugarcane, opium, fruits and flowers, forest products (for example, gums, chironji, mhowa, berries, honey) and items from the hills, including tobacco and grass. Some traded in specific goods, such as the Mukeri (wood and timber). One common Banjara practice in Berar before the British colonial period was the movement of cotton out of the region and then a return journey with groceries, salt, spices and similar consumptibles into the region. In that area, the Deccan Plateau and the Central Provinces, the Banjaras had a monopoly on the movement of salt prior to the arrival of the East India Company. More generally, they also traded in cattle, moving the beasts around the country's bazaars, and they rented out their carts.Although some older sources have suggested that they did not use credit, Habib's analysis of historic sources suggests that they did and that some were reliant on it.

The peripatetic nature of Banjara life significantly affected their societal behaviours. Satya notes that it

Movement of goods around the country meant that the Banjaras had to be, and were, trusted by merchants, moneylenders and traders. Any disruption caused by the grazing of their livestock along the trade routes was tolerated because the same beasts provided manure to fertilise the land. However, many Europeans historically thought the Banjaras to be similar to Gypsies, although this was unjustified as there were significant differences. Habib notes that "Superstitions of all kinds, including suspected witch killings and sacrifices, reinforced the Gypsy image of the class".

In 19th century, and despite some British officials such as Thurston praising their trustworthiness as carriers, the British colonial authorities brought the community under the purview of Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. Edward Balfour noted in his On the migratory tribes of natives in Central India (1843) that the reduction in the number of wars by that time had contributed to their economic deprivation, whilst East India Company encroachment on monopolies such as salt also affected them. Many also lost their work as carriers due to the arrival of the railways and improved roads. Some tried to work the forests for wood and produce, some settled to be farmers, and others turned to crime. Earlier than this there had been British people who considered them to be undesirable because of their role in passing messages and weapons to armies as they went about their travels, and there was also a general trend among the British to treat criminality as something that was normal among communities without fixed abode. They were sometimes associated by the British with Thugee and by the 1830s had gained some notoriety for committing crimes such as roadside robbery, cattle lifting, and theft of grain or other property. The women took a leading role in such criminality, led by the headman of the gang, and if someone was convicted then the other members of the gang would take care of their families. Poor, mostly illiterate and unskilled, the Banjaras were also resistant to improvement through education, which the British felt left no recourse other than tight control through policing. Their reputation for misdeeds persisted into the early twentieth century.

The status of the Banjaras as a designated criminal tribe continued until after the independence of India, when the repeal of the Criminal Tribes Act caused them to be classified as one of the Denotified Tribes.

Banjara language
As the Banjara language has no script, it is either written in Devanagari script or in the script of the local language such as Telugu or Kannada. Many Banjaras today are bilingual or multilingual, adopting the predominant language of their surroundings, but those that continue to live in areas of dense Banjara population persist with their traditional language.

There have been calls for the traditional language to be recognised in the Constitution of India; the state of Telangana state has introduced two textbooks in the language for primary school children.

Art

Banjara art includes performance arts such as dance and music as well as folk and plastic arts such as rangoli, textile embroidery, tattooing and painting. Banjara embroidery and tattooing are especially prized and also form a significant aspect of the Banjara identity. Lambani women specialise in lepo embroidery, which involves stitching pieces of mirror, decorative beads and coins onto clothes. Sandur Lambani embroidery is a type of textile embroidery unique to the tribe in Sanduru, Bellary district, Karnataka. It has obtained a GI tag.

Festivals
Banjara people celebrate the festival of Teej during Shravana (the month of August). In this festival young unmarried Banjara girls pray for a good groom. They sow seeds in bamboo bowls and water it three times a day for nine days and if the sprouts grow "thick and high" it is considered a good omen. During Teej the seedling-baskets are kept in the middle and girls sing and dance around them.

Dance and music
Fire dance, Ghumar dance and Chari dance are the traditional dance forms of the Banjaras. Banjaras have a sister community of singers known as Dadhis or Gajugonia. They traditionally travelled from village to village singing songs to the accompaniment of sarangi.

Religion
Banjara people are known to worship deities such as Balaji and Jagadamba. They also hold Guru Nanak in great respect. However, the Banjaras have been "ambiguous" with regard to religion and were "tolerant and syncretic", according to Satya.

Sevalal or Sevabhaya is the most important saint of the Banjaras. Colonial British administrators quote his stories, place him in the 19th century and identify his original name as Siva Rathor.

Society
Although the Banjaras were traditionally a migratory people, they did historically mostly settle each year in fixed village accommodation during the monsoon months of June - August and their elderly people are usually permanently  Although the introduction of modern modes of transport largely made the community redundant from their traditional occupation, forcing them into economic distress from which they sought relief by turning to agriculture and other unskilled labour, V. Sarveswara Naik notes that as recently as 1996 many still retain a nomadic lifestyle on a seasonal basis to supplement their income. They also retain common traits among their exogamous clans, including strict tribal endogamy, use of the Gor-Boli language, referencing themselves as Gor, settling in tanda groups, using tribal councils called Gor panchayats to resolve disputes and, in the case of the women, dressing in their traditional clothing. However, the men have largely given up their traditional attire of a white dhoti (skirt) and a red turban, along with the wearing of ear-rings, finger rings and kanadoro (silver strings worn around the waist).

Marriage
Aside from retaining their practice of endogamy, V. Sarveswara Naik records of Banjara customs in 1990s Andhra Pradesh that they follow forms of marriage that include monogamy, serial monogamy.  widows are allowed to remarry and divorce is accepted provided it has the consent of the Gor panchayat. The marriages are usually between people who live fairly close together, within the same taluka  or, occasionally, district; the exception to this is the relatively rare case when the man has some education, in which case it is becoming more common to see them making arrangements that involve a longer distance.

It is the boys' fathers who initiate marriage proposals, usually when the child reaches the age of 18 and is considered capable of running an independent household. Women and girls, including the prospective bride, have no say in the matter but he father takes advice from the naik of his tanda and from close relatives. The girls are usually prepared for this arranged marriage from the onset of puberty and her parents will make a show of resistance when a proposal is made before her father agrees to the advice given by his Naik and village elders. Horoscopes are consulted and information gleaned regarding the boy's prospects. Sometimes the arrangement is made earlier and may even be solemnised with a betrothal ceremony, called a sagai, but the girl will remain in the household until she does attain puberty.  When agreement is reached and both sides make a promise to that effect in front of the Gor panchayat, the boy's family distribute liquor, betel leaves and nuts nuts for the tanda and girl's family. She is presented with a full set of traditional dress upon marriage, which is made by her mother. Women's dress varies according to marital status, as does their ornamentation. Although the ornamentation was once made of ivory and silver, reduced economic circumstances have caused it to become plastic and aluminium. The extremely elaborate nature of their dresses, comprising glass pieces, beads and sea-shells on a mainly red material, means that they are worn for months between careful launderings.

The practice of paying a bride price to the girl's father traditionally applies on betrothal, which is a community celebration, although the payment of a dowry by the bride's family is becoming evident. The value of this transaction is set by the Gor panchayat and is now a monetary figure; it was traditionally eleven rupees and either four bullocks or one bullock and three cattle unless the groom's family was particularly wealthy. The marriage is usually arranged for a time when there is little work, so the months of April and May are common as they fall just after the harvest period.

Gender roles
Banjara families prefer to have both sons and daughters. The son is considered necessary because they are a patrilineal society, whilst at least one daughter is deemed desirable because she can look after the parents in their old age if the son is too pre-occupied in his marriage. Daughters also contribute greatly to the running of the family unit prior to their own marriage and are prized by their mothers for that reason, being trained in various domestic tasks that benefit both the unit and their future married life. Aside from strictly domestic tasks, they are an economic boon because they help with herding and grazing the family's cattle and with work in the crop fields.

A Banjara wife is subservient to her husband and is expected to perform daily tasks for her parents-in-law. Whilst she and her husband live with her parents-in-law, she is also subservient to her mother-in-law. This period of co-habitation with the extended family usually lasts until the husband has helped to arrange the marriages of his brothers and is often the cause of arguments between the wife, the mother-in-law and any sisters-in-law. Once the husband is free of his obligation to his brothers, his wife will apply pressure to achieve a separation from the joint household, which grants her a measure of independence although she remains economically reliant upon her husband. The separating of the households causes her husband to receive some property from his parents, such as land, livestock and money, but it is a patrilineal society and so the wife has nothing.

Banjara men take the lead in religious festivals, with women playing a subsidiary role. The men sing the devotional songs and perform the temple rituals but it is the women who do most of the singing and dancing. The women are also expected to work with men when groups go to enact performances in front of non-Banjara audiences to raise money for the celebration of festivals, but most of that money is then consumed by the men in the form of liquor. The one religious function in which the women are paramount is the preparations for marriage, a ceremony which usually takes place in the house of the bride's family.

It is the men who also perform political functions, settling disputes and dealing with other problems through the Gor panchayat. Any matter that involves a woman is dealt with by the men and it is a man who represents her interests, an example being the dealings for marriage proposals which always require the consent of the Gor panchayat. If a woman leaves her husband and the marital abode then that, too, is a matter to be judged by the men.

V. Sarveswara Naik, herself a Banjara, notes of the situation for Banjara women in Andhra Pradesh that

Distribution
As of 2008, the Banjara community has been listed as a Scheduled Tribe in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha. They were designated as an Other Backward Class in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and as a Scheduled Caste in Karnataka, Delhi and Punjab( SC for Bazigar, Badi and Banjara and OBC for Lambana, Lambani, Vanzara and Lohana).

See also
 List of Scheduled Tribes in India

References
Notes

Citations

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Other Backward Classes of Chhattisgarh
Other Backward Classes of Gujarat
Other Backward Classes of Haryana
Other Backward Classes of Madhya Pradesh
Other Backward Classes of Maharashtra
Other Backward Classes of Rajasthan
Scheduled Castes of Karnataka
Scheduled Castes of Delhi
Scheduled Castes of Punjab
Scheduled Tribes of Andhra Pradesh
Scheduled Tribes of Odisha
Denotified tribes of India
Scheduled Tribes of Telangana
Hindu communities
Hindu ethnic groups
Social groups of Rajasthan

Banjara


Kudzu (), also called Japanese arrowroot or Chinese arrowroot, is a group of climbing, coiling, and trailing deciduous perennial vines native to much of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific islands, but invasive in many parts of the world, primarily North America.

The vine densely climbs over other plants and trees and grows so rapidly that it smothers and kills them by blocking most of the sunlight and taking root space. The plants are in the genus Pueraria, in the pea family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. The name is derived from the Japanese name for the plant East Asian arrowroot, (Pueraria montana var. lobata), . Where these plants are naturalized, they can be invasive and are considered noxious weeds. The plant is edible, but often sprayed with herbicides.

Taxonomy and nomenclature

The name kudzu describes one or more species in the genus Pueraria that are closely related, and some of them are considered to be varieties rather than full species. The morphological differences between the subspecies of P. montana are subtle; they can breed with each other, and introduced kudzu populations in the United States apparently have ancestry from more than one of the subspecies. They are:
 P. montana
 Pueraria montana var. chinensis (Ohwi) Sanjappa & Pradeep (= P. chinensis)
 Pueraria montana var. lobata (Willd.) Sanjappa & Pradeep (= P. lobata)
 Pueraria montana var. thomsonii (Benth.) Wiersema ex D.B. Ward (= P. thomsonii)
 P. edulis
 P. phaseoloides – proposed to be moved to Neustanthus

Various other species in Pueraria sensu stricto are also known as "kudzu" with an adjective, but they are not as widely cultivated or introduced.

Propagation

Kudzu spreads by vegetative reproduction via stolons (runners) that root at the nodes to form new plants and by rhizomes.  Kudzu also spreads by seeds, which are contained in pods and mature in the autumn, although this is rare. One or two viable seeds are produced per cluster of pods. The hard-coated seeds can remain viable for several years, and can successfully germinate only when soil is persistently soggy for 5–7 days, with temperatures above 20 °C (68 °F).  Once germinated, saplings must be kept in a well-drained medium that retains high moisture. During this stage of growth, kudzu must receive as much sunlight as possible. Kudzu saplings are sensitive to mechanical disturbance and are damaged by chemical fertilizers. They do not tolerate long periods of shade or high water tables.

Uses

Soil improvement and preservation
Kudzu has been used as a form of erosion control and to enhance the soil. As a legume, it increases the nitrogen in the soil by a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Its deep taproots also transfer valuable minerals from the subsoil to the topsoil, thereby improving the topsoil. In the deforested section of the central Amazon Basin in Brazil, it has been used for improving the soil pore-space in clay latosols, thus freeing even more water for plants than in the soil prior to deforestation.

Animal feed
Kudzu can be used by grazing animals, as it is high in quality as a forage and palatable to livestock.  It can be grazed until frost and even slightly after.  Kudzu had been used in the southern United States specifically to feed goats on land that had limited resources.  Kudzu hay typically has a 22–23% crude protein content and over 60% total digestible nutrient value.  The quality of the leaves decreases as vine content increases relative to the leaf content. Kudzu also has low forage yields despite its rate of growth, yielding around two to four tons of dry matter per acre annually.  It is also difficult to bale due to its vining growth and its slowness in shedding water. This makes it necessary to place kudzu hay under sheltered protection after being baled. Fresh kudzu is readily consumed by all types of grazing animals, but frequent grazing over three to four years can ruin even established stands. Thus, kudzu only serves well as a grazing crop on a temporary basis.

Basketry
Kudzu fiber has long been used for fiber art and basketry.  The long runners which propagate the kudzu fields and the larger vines which cover trees make excellent weaving material.  Some basketmakers use the material green.  Others use it after splitting it in half, allowing it to dry and then rehydrating it using hot water.  Both traditional and contemporary basketry artists use kudzu.

Phytochemicals and uses
Kudzu contains isoflavones, including puerarin (about 60% of the total isoflavones), daidzein, daidzin (structurally related to genistein), mirificin, and salvianolic acid, among numerous others identified. In traditional Chinese medicine, where it is known as gé gēn (gegen), kudzu is considered one of the 50 fundamental herbs thought to have therapeutic effects, although there is no high-quality clinical research to indicate it has any activity or therapeutic use in humans. Compounds of icariin, astragalus, and puerarin mitigates iron overload in the cerebral cortex of mice with Alzheimer's disease. Adverse effects may occur if kudzu is taken by people with hormone-sensitive cancer or those taking tamoxifen, antidiabetic medications, or methotrexate.

Food
The roots contain starch, which has traditionally been used as a food ingredient in East and Southeast Asia. In Vietnam, the starch, called bột sắn dây, is flavoured with pomelo oil and then used as a drink in the summer. In Korea, the plant root is made into chikcha (칡차; "arrowroot tea"), used in traditional medicine, and processed starch used for culinary purposes such as primary ingredient for naengmyeon (칡냉면). In Japan, the plant is known as kuzu and the starch named kuzuko. Kuzuko is used in dishes including kuzumochi, mizu manjū, and kuzuyu. It also serves as a thickener for sauces, and can substitute for cornstarch.

The flowers are used to make a jelly that tastes similar to grape jelly. Roots, flowers, and leaves of kudzu show antioxidant activity that suggests food uses. Nearby bee colonies may forage on kudzu nectar during droughts as a last resort, producing a low-viscosity red or purple honey that tastes of grape jelly or bubblegum.

Folk medicine
Kudzu has also been used for centuries in East Asia as folk medicine using herbal teas and tinctures. Kudzu powder is used in Japan to make an herbal tea called kuzuyu. Kakkonto () is a herbal drink with its origin in traditional Chinese medicine, intended for people having various mild illnesses, such as headache.

Other uses
Kudzu fiber, known as ko-hemp, is used traditionally to make clothing and paper, and has also been investigated for industrial-scale use.

It may become a valuable asset for the production of cellulosic ethanol. In the Southern United States, kudzu is used to make soaps, lotions, and compost.

Invasive species
Kudzu's environmental and ecological damage results from its outcompeting other species for a resource. Kudzu competes with native flora for light, and acts to block their access to this vital resource by growing over them and shading them with its leaves. Native plants may then die as a result.When kudzu invades an ecosystem, it makes the leaf litter more labile, thereby lessening the carbon sequestration ability of the soil. This feeds climate change.

Americas

Kudzu is an infamous weed in the United States, where it can be found in 32 states. It is common along roadsides and other disturbed areas throughout most of the southeast, as far north as rural areas of Pulaski County, Illinois. The vine has become a sore point in Southern US culture. Estimates of its rate of spreading differ wildly; it has been described as spreading at the rate of  annually, although in 2015 the United States Forest Service estimated the rate to be only  per year.

A small patch of kudzu was discovered in 2009 in Leamington, Ontario, the second-warmest growing region of Canada after south coastal British Columbia.

Kudzu was introduced from Japan into the United States at the Japanese pavilion in the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It was also shown at the Chicago World's Fair. It remained a garden plant until the Dust Bowl era (1930s–1940s), when the vine was marketed as a way for farmers to stop soil erosion. The new Soil Conservation Service grew seventy million kudzu seedlings and paid $8 an acre () to anyone who would sow the vine. Road and rail builders planted kudzu to stabilize steep slopes. Farmer and journalist Channing Cope, dubbed "kudzu kid" in a 1949 Time profile, popularised it in the South as a fix for eroded soils. He started the Kudzu Club of America, which, by 1943, had 20,000 members. The club aimed to plant  across the South. Cultivation peaked at over  by 1945. Once Soil Service payments ended, much of the kudzu was destroyed as farmers turned the land over to more profitable uses. The Soil Conservation Service stopped promoting kudzu altogether by the 1950s.

Kudzu's ongoing mythos as a mile-a-minute invader is likely due to its visibility coating trees at wooded roadsides, thriving in the sunshine at the forest edge. Despite kudzu's notoriety, Asian privet and invasive roses have each proved to be greater threats in the United States.

Europe
In Europe, kudzu has been included since 2016 on the list of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern (the Union list). This means that this species cannot be imported, cultivated, transported, commercialized, planted, or intentionally released into the environment anywhere in the European Union.

There are only some kudzu populations in certain regions of Italy and Switzerland. In Switzerland it occurs almost exclusively in Ticino, where it has been found in the wild since at least 1956. Most outbreaks are concentrated around Lake Lugano and Lake Maggiore, where the climate (hot summers and mild winters) encourages its growth. However, outbreaks in peripheral areas such as the Onsernone Valley and Lower Leventina are likely due to the illegal disposal of plant waste. Thanks to effective, viable control methods, kudzu could still be eradicated in Ticino if they immediately make every effort to prevent this plant from spreading further.

Other regions
During World War II, kudzu was introduced to Vanuatu and Fiji by United States Armed Forces to serve as camouflage for equipment and has become a major weed.

Kudzu is also becoming a problem in northeastern Australia, and has been seen in Switzerland and in isolated spots in Northern Italy (Lake Maggiore).

In New Zealand, kudzu was declared an "unwanted organism" and was added to the Biosecurity New Zealand register in 2002.

Control

Crown removal
Destroying the full underground system, which can be extremely large and deep, is not necessary for successful long-term control of kudzu. Killing or removing the kudzu root crown and all rooting runners is sufficient. The root crown is a fibrous knob of tissue that sits on top of the roots. Crowns form from multiple vine nodes that root to the ground, and range from pea- to basketball-sized. These crowns and attached tuberous roots can weigh 400 or 500 pounds (180 to 225 kilograms) and extend up to twenty feet (six meters) into the ground.,The age of the crowns is correlated to how deep they are in the ground. Nodes and crowns are the source of all kudzu vines, and roots cannot produce vines. If any portion of a root crown remains after attempted removal, the kudzu plant may still grow back.

Mechanical methods of control involve cutting off crowns from roots, usually just below ground level. This immediately kills the plant. Cutting off the above-ground vines is not sufficient for an immediate kill. Destroying all removed crown material is necessary. Buried crowns can regenerate into healthy kudzu. Transporting crowns in soil removed from a kudzu infestation is one common way that kudzu unexpectedly spreads and shows up in new locations.

Close mowing every week, regular heavy grazing for many successive years, or repeated cultivation may be effective, as this serves to deplete root reserves. If done in the spring, cutting off vines must be repeated. Regrowth appears to exhaust the plant's stored carbohydrate reserves. Harvested kudzu can be fed to livestock, burned, or composted.

In the United States, the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee undertook a trial program in 2010 using goats and llamas to graze on the plant. Similar efforts to reduce widespread nuisance kudzu growth have also been undertaken in the cities of Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Tallahassee, Florida.

Prescribed burning is used on old extensive infestations to remove vegetative cover and promote seed germination for removal or treatment. While fire is not an effective way to kill kudzu, equipment, such as a skid loader, can later remove crowns and kill kudzu with minimal disturbance or erosion of soil.

Herbicide
A systemic herbicide, for example, glyphosate, triclopyr, or picloram, can be applied directly on cut stems, which is an effective means of transporting the herbicide into the kudzu's extensive root system. Herbicides can be used after other methods of control, such as mowing, grazing, or burning, which can allow for an easier application of the chemical to the weakened plants. In large-scale forestry infestations, soil-active herbicides have been shown to be highly effective.

After initial herbicidal treatment, follow-up treatments and monitoring are usually necessary, depending on how long the kudzu has been growing in an area. Up to 10 years of supervision may be needed after the initial chemical placement to make sure the plant does not return.

Fungi
Since 1998, the United States' Agricultural Research Service has experimented with using the fungus Myrothecium verrucaria as a biologically based herbicide against kudzu. A diacetylverrucarol spray based on M. verrucaria works under a variety of conditions (including the absence of dew), causes minimal injury to many of the other woody plants in kudzu-infested habitats, and takes effect quickly enough that kudzu treated with it in the morning starts showing evidence of damage by midafternoon. Initial formulations of the herbicide produced toxic levels of other trichothecenes as byproducts, though the ARS discovered that growing M. verrucaria in a fermenter on a liquid diet (instead of a solid) limited or eliminated the problem.

See also
 Kudzu bug
 Kudzu tea
 Kudzu powder

Notes

References

 This article was based in part on content from public domain web pages from the United States National Park Service and the United States Bureau of Land Management

External links

Edible thickening agents
Japanese cuisine
Plants used in traditional Chinese medicine
Fiber plants
Pueraria
Starch
Plant common names
Flora invasive in North America

Kudzu


In telecommunications and computer networking, Concrete Syntax Notation One (CSN.1) is a standard and flexible notation that describes data structures for representing, encoding, transmitting, and decoding data, specifically GPRS used for cell phones.  Many examples of CSN.1 encoded data structures can be found in 3GPP TS44.060 and an informative description of the CSN.1 syntax is found in 3GPP TS 24.007.

Here is an example of a CSN.1 description of a message. If the first bit is 1, an apple structure follows, which is a 5-bit Apple code. If the first bit is 0, on the other hand, a 3-bit orange code, and a 2-bit peel type follow.

<Example> ::= { 1 <Apple struct> | 0 <Orange struct> } 0;
<Apple struct> ::= < Apple Code : bit(5) >;
<Orange struct> ::= <Orange Code : bit(3) > <PeelType: bit(2)>;

Advantages
 It is relatively simple to understand.
 The notation is extremely compact - any bit can be addressed

Disadvantages
 It is very difficult to maintain when extensions and new releases of the protocols need to be implemented
 Creating a compiler for the language is very difficult, because the language can include expressions that refer to any named elements previously decoded.
 The CSN.1 structures listed in communication standards are not checked and are often filled with errors and non-standard notation.

See also
 Annex B of 3GPP TS 24.007 contains a detailed description of CSN.1.
 CSN1.INFO provides a complete online description of CSN.1 (including those parts not explained on TS 24.007), with examples and common pitfalls.

External links
A free tool that encodes/decodes CSN.1 3GPP messages and allows easy editing of these messages.

Mobile telecommunications standards
3GPP standards

CSN.1