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Northern Ghana is characterized by dispersed settlement. The pattern derives basically from a system of fixed cultivation which is rare in tropical areas. The layout of a house reflects family structure; similarly, patterns of land holdings reflect stages in community evolution. Originally circular, home-farms are divided by inheritance into radial strips, diminishing in size over the generations. Settlement dispersal commences with domestic fission within agnatic lineages. Society is strongly patrilocal, and ancestor worship a powerful influence. Study of lineage affiliation indicates a spread of settlement from ancestral core areas, usually in defensible hilly areas. Because of high per capita cost of provision of services, there is a need to concentrate settlement, if any degree of modern development is to be achieved. Lack of a major cash crop to finance local development is one obstacle, but greater still are the social difficulties confronting any attempt to re-cast the settlement pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the problem of rural depopulation in southwestern Ontario. High commercialization of agriculture; Attraction of expanding cities; Declaration of provincial Minister of Agriculture Colonel Kennedy that Ontario needs fewer farmers and better farms; Cause of rural depopulation; Migration of the non-farm population; Area of poor drainage Haldimand County; Changes in farming; Eroded area of Ganaraska; Effects of depopulation on forms of settlement; Evidences of cultural lag.

The article discusses the differing views on the aspects of population changes and the outlook on the decline and stability of highland areas in Scotland. Highland areas has been defined as limits of close, continuous, lowland settlements which are sparse, dispersed or detached settlement taken as the feature which best defines all highland areas. The population change rates shows a moderate rate of decrease in highland areas while as a whole, urban population continue to increase at rates higher than the national average. Moreover, the outlook for this areas is that despite the continuing depopulation in some districts it is by no means inevitable in all and the temporary invasions of navies and troops are not to be wholly ignored.

The station area, in spite of its being mainly a pasture land of the village Mahuvar, had developed by 1930, is a sparsely populated residential area. The development of this township within the last thirty years is due more to extraneous forces than to the internal ones. Though the area is bounded by rivers which make it a compact area and which also make contact with Navsari more difficult, it did not generate such conditions as: would be conducive to the development of a bazar to serve the needs of this area. To sum up, in this area of Koli concentration in the pargana, only 21 per cent of the land is under cotton crop and 78.5 per cent under dry crop; of which 20.8 per cent is kyari or rice land and: the rest 57.7 per cent is used for raising jowar, the staple food of the people of the pargana as well as the district. The population of these villages constitutes 55.71 per cent of the total population of this area. Some Kolis are also found in other villages of the Anavils. This short ecological background of the area reveals that a railway station in itself cannot be an inducing factor of development of any area.

The article determines possible ways of helping mentally superior children in a rural area. A survey of exceptional children was undertaken in cooperation with the state education department in rural New York. They were having preliminary discussion by a small group. The principal invited the elementary supervisor, teacher in elementary and high school, and the guidance director to meet in the office. The principal purchased books and pamphlets on the topic for circulation among the group. The most helpful books were "Helping the Gifted Child," by Paul Witty, and "The Gifted Child in the Regular Classroom," by Marion Scheifele.

This article attempts to show the principal characteristics of the population of New Mexico and some of the more important trends affecting the population of the state. A few of the principal facts arrived at, in the form of a summary, are listed below.(1) Topographical and climatic features and their effect upon agriculture have been very important from the standpoint of the settlement of New Mexico and in consideration of the distribution of the population within the state.(2) Population trends and characteristics in New Mexico must be interpreted in the light of the historical developments. The 400 years that have passed since the first Spaniards came to New Mexico have seen developments that have influenced both the growth of the population and its changing characteristics.(3) The population of the State increased slowly up to the time of Mexican independence, but somewhat more rapidly during the period under Mexican rule.(4) New Mexico is still very sparsely populated. The average number of persons per square mile was only 3.5 in 1930, as compared with approximately 41.3 for the United States as a while. The population density within the state in 1930 varied from 0.5 persons per square mile in Catron County to 37.4 in Bernalillo County. Within some counties the population is very unevenly distributed. The presence of sparsely populated areas in many sections creates important social problems for the people residing in such areas.