Items of Interest December 23, 1916 Issue

Items of Interest

The construction of concrete highways is going on in twenty-two cities and towns in Connecticut, and when these contracts have been completed there will be about seventy miles of concrete surfaced pavement in that state. The highways are 18 feet wide and cost $15,000 a mile. The longest single stretch of concrete road in Connecticut is two miles in Cheshire, on the main highway from Plainville to New Haven. Considerable progress has been made in concreting the old Boston Post Road between Hartford and New Haven. These concrete highways are being built with the expectation that no other surfacing substance will ever be applied to them. There is said to be little complaint from horse owners about the roads, and as they are not slippery they are better for automobiles than asphalt or any of the bituminous pavements. Reports show that they are costing the state for repairs just $32.80 a mile. Connecticut has about twelve thousand miles of highways, of which about sixteen hundred miles have been improved during the past twenty-one years at a cost approximating fourteen million dollars.

At the request of the authorities of the Canal Zone the United States Bureau of Fisheries recently sent there 450 black bass, 500 rock bass, 1000 catfish, and 800 sunfish, which have been distributed in Gatum Lake in order to determine whether such fish will thrive in its waters. As this lake varies from an abundance of shallow water to a depth of 85 feet, and as it is very irregular in shape, dotted over with islands, and generally bordered with forest growth, it seems to be an ideal place for the propagation of fish adapted to a tropical climate. If the present experiment succeeds, this lake, which covers 164 square miles, might furnish enough fish to meet a considerable part of the demand for fresh fish in the Canal Zone.

Giant Forest, the privately owned tract of the world's largest trees in the heart of Sequoia National Park, Cal., is about to pass into the hands of the Government through cooperation between the Interior Department and the National Geographic Society. Congress appropriated $50,000 to purchase the land, but the owners refused to sell unless adjacent holdings valued at $20,000 were taken at the same time. An option on the entire tract was secured, and the managers of the Geographic Society appropriated the $20,000 to make possible the immediate payment of $70,000. In the Giant Forest, which is a table-land about two miles in diameter, are trees said by experts to be 4000 years old. One of them, the largest in the world, has a circumference at its base of 209 feet and towers 279.9 feet into the air.

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