Abstract
AT the recent meeting at Norwich of the British Association, Mr. E. Wyllie Fenton made an interesting plea, in a paper read before Section K (Botany), for the extension and co-ordination of the existing Ordnance and Geological Surveys into a wide body to carry out periodic surveys not only of topography, rocks and soils but also of vegetation, agriculture and animal life. Mr. Wyllie Fenton's illustrations of the wider need were mainly botanical, as for example, the invasion of valuable land in Scotland by bracken moving downhill to the better land ” like a series of plant glaciers”, and the association of this fact with changes in land settlement and agricultural practice. A plea was advanced for a prompter recognition of these significant changes in vegetation and in the results of changes in population, distribution, etc., with the argument that a more scientific utilisation of the land, in housing development, in agriculture and in forestry, etc., would be possible if such a general scientific survey service provided the data. Mr. Fenton recognises, however, the ambitious nature of such a proposal, and suggests that a start might be made by the attachment of a few botanists to the Geological Survey.
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Co-ordination of Scientific Surveys. Nature 136, 751 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136751c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136751c0