In 1947 the Uruguayan highway system had a length of 26,000 miles, of which 3,100 miles were paved. According to the last highway plan, the paved mileage will be increased 50 percent within a few years. The most important roads radiate from Montevideo, the national capital, where the zero milestone is located at the Statue of Liberty. Uruguay also has 2,000 miles of railways and 775 miles of navigable rivers.

As of December 31, 1947, Argentine donations of food to needy European countries totaled 576,543 tons, at an estimated value of more than $96 million. Of this amount, about $87 million was contributed by the Government and the remainder by private organizations.

• Cuba may well be proud of its magnificent new Radio Center. The three buildings of the Center, separated by a few inches to prevent the spread of vibrations, give the appearance of one large structure. Eleven studios, ranging from very small ones used for commercials and transcriptions, to the auditoriums with a seating capacity of 300 each, complete with the latest architectural and scientific innovations, are equipped for all types of broadcasting.

• Colombian petroleum production in 1947 is reported to have been 24,981,000 barrels, against 22,424,000 barrels in 1946.

The Industrial Union of Paraguay has made arrangements for taking the country's first industrial census.

• The Ica valley, south of Lima, Peru, has seen its agricultural production doubled in the last fifteen years, thanks to 120 artesian wells. These give an average flow of water of more than 20 gallons per minute. Good land, which the water from the Ica river was insufficient to irrigate, has been brought under cultivation, the agricultural population is increasing, and

the general standard of living has been raised. The chief crops are cotton and grapes.

• Natural gas from Mexico's rich oilfield Poza Rica will soon be a new source of fuel for the Federal District area. A 20inch pipeline to be completed by October next at a cost of about $8,250,000 will bring the gas 145 miles from the field, in the state of Veracruz, to Mexico City and surrounding industrial towns. This valuable resource has heretofore burned away, owing to lack of means for putting it to use. • Chile has expanded its merchant marine with the acquisition of three modern cargo ships, purchased from the United States by the Inter-Oceanic Navigation Company of Chile. Each ship has a cargo capacity of 5,000 tons and is provided with the most up-to-date equipment available, in the way of navigation instruments, coldstorage units, and facilities for the rapid loading and unloading of cargo. The first of the three ships arrived in Valparaíso on January 29, 1948, and the other two followed within a few weeks.

• Venezuela is building its first fruit and vegetable canning factory, equipped with canning and juicing machinery from the United States. The plant will be used. for canning tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato juice, pimentos, pineapples, and pineapple juice.

• Venezuela has made a contract to sell Argentina 2,000,000 42-gallon barrels of petroleum a year (which the Government of Venezuela will provide from its royalty supplies) in exchange for 15,000 tons of frozen boned meat. Deliveries of both products, however, may vary in volume more or less up to ten percent.

• According to the Foreign Commerce Weekly, Chilean nitrate nitrate production in 1947 amounted to 1,625,000 metric tons, com

pared with 1,617,000 tons in 1946. During the year a new process for production of potassium nitrate was announced, and the two largest nitrate plants in Chile are proceeding with plans to install a solarevaporation system for the recovery of by-products.

• A total of 37,200 Ecuadoreans learned to read and write during 1947, under the Government's nation-wide literacy campaign. This brings the total to 131,800 persons who have become literate since the campaign started in 1944.

• Señorita Flor Jaramillo of Bogotá, first Colombian woman to be licensed as a commercial pilot, has been employed as a co-pilot by the TACA Airlines of Venezuela. She was trained in the United States under a scholarship awarded by an American oil company in Colombia.

Chicago National History Museum has opened two exhibits relating to ancient cultures of Mexico, in the museum's Hall of American Archaeology, reports The Museum News. One of the exhibits, on the culture of the Mayas in Yucatan, shows sculpture and other arts, architectural details of important buildings depicted by cut-outs placed on a map of the area, and photo-murals of reconstructed cities. The other exhibit, relating to the highlands of Mexico, depicts

religious and trading activities of the period from A. D. 700 to 1500. There are examples of raw materials then in use, and craft objects. A painting, based on Aztec drawings in the Codex Florentino, shows a market scene in a city plaza.

• During the present academic year the National Faculty of Philosphy in Rio de Janeiro will offer a course in journalism. • A large zoological park is being planned for the capital of the Dominican Republic. Dr. Walter Praetorius, who has directed construction of zoos in several South American countries and who was until recently Chief of Zoology of the State of Pará, Brazil, will supervise organization of the Ciudad Trujillo park.

Erratum

In the April 1948 number of the BULLETIN, page 238, it was erroneously stated that Argentina's sugar production for 1946-47 totaled 7,444,600 tons, and that of this amount, 5,605,000 tons were produced in the province of Tucumán. In quoting these figures from a Buenos Aires newspaper, the writer failed to notice that they referred to production of sugar cane, not to sugar itself. The actual amount of sugar produced from the cane would, of course, be considerably less than the figures given.

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