Newscripts
Why and who. Hydroformylation Carbonylation Hydrocarboxylation Decarbonylation Polymerization Isomenzation Hydrogénation Dehydrogenation Esterification Halogenation Dehalogenation ^''ψί Dehydrohalogenation "%m& Alkylation iArylation Disproportionation Amination Acetylation Condensation Hydrocyanation Hydration if, Sulfenylation t Cyclization • If you're involved in an CTZÏY °f these applica^ ^ β Ρ " tions-and there are probably a hundred more like them not listed here-you should consider M&T Chem icals triphenylphosphine. Or find out more about how we can meet your special organophosphine requirements. We'll gladly send you a free 4-ounce triphenylphosphine sample to test, analyze and evaluate in your favorite application. Just call or write M&T Chemicals Inc., RO. Box 1104, Rah way Ν J 07065. (201)499-2331.
MST CHEMICALS INC.
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C&ENNov. 23, 1981
Wild rice is bone of contention in Minnesota Starting next year, wild rice in Min nesota, the world's largest producer of the grain, must be labeled "lakeand river-grown" or "paddy-grown." The ruling resulted from a skirmish in the state legislature between res ervation Indians and commercial growers (in paddies). The Indians harvest wild rice from lakes and rivers on or near the reser vations. Their crops yield 300,000 to 1 million lb of processed rice annually. Minnesota's 70 commercial growers produce slightly more than 2 million lb of the grain per year. Wild rice evidently has become a delicacy. It sells for $10 to $15 per lb on the East Coast and West Coast and $5.00 per lb in Minnesota, ac cording to Ervin Oelke, professor of agronomy and plant genetics at the University of Minnesota. That's a far cry from the year 1805, when the In dians quoted explorer Zebulon Pike a price of $1.50 a bushel for wild rice. On the other hand, $1.50 was real money in 1805. Wild rice freaks can gather their own from public waters in northern and northeastern Minnesota. They must get a ricing license, however, from the state's Department of Nat ural Resources. For a fee of $5.00, you can harvest wild rice for two hours using the Indian method—cruising through stands in lakes and rivers in a canoe and beating the grain loose with a flail. The Indians have been doing it that way for centuries. The Ojibway, Fox, Winnebago, and Dakota tribes fought battles for the best lake and river stands. Wild rice, and the waterfowl it attracted, is said to have helped forest Indians through northern winters for thousands of years. They ate it with game, in soup with blueberries, and with maple sugar. Wild rice was domesticated only nine years ago by plant geneticist Robert Stucker at the University of Minnesota. The breeding program started with seed from more than 120 natural stands. The result was Netum, a variety that holds its ker nels long enough to be harvested by a combine passing through the paddy. Netum drops only enough seed to reproduce itself the next year. The wild variety seeds itself the same way, but drops too many kernels too soon to be harvested conveniently by combine.
by Κ. Μ. Reese
Commercial growers want to boost production, lower prices, and widen the market for wild rice. Oelke, Stucker, and others at the university are working on the necessary agri cultural technology. The Indians, meanwhile, sell mostly to tourists passing near their reservations and a few large buyers. Because they har vest by hand, they aren't especially concerned about market growth. They do, however, sell Minnesota's wildest wild rice, and they want that market protected. Biology teacher told to teach English class Retrenchment in the schools in Massachusetts is the subject of a story in the November issue of Basic Edu cation, a publication of the Council for Basic Education, Washington, D.C. Proposition 2V2 in that state is squeezing, among other schools, Southeastern Massachusetts Uni versity. A reduction in staff there led to the assignment of Sanford Moss—a senior professor of biol ogy—to teach a class in English composition. Moss was stimulated to write to his local newspaper, as fol lows: "I guess things is sure tough down to SMU. I been teechen biology over there for comin on to 15 years . . . . Now, one of them d e e n s . . . called me up an tole me I was going to teech freshman English. She said some thing about preposition 2V2. "Well I had a course in English oncet in college . . . . But I ain't never heard of a rule of grammar called preposition 2V2· I do like I'm tole, so I guess I'll teech my best. I just hope they don't tell me to teech any polit ical science. I ain't never even had a course in that!" According to Basic Education, "Taking Moss at his written word, angry citizens have called vowing never to send their sons and daugh ters to an institution with professors the likes of him." Department of obscure information • The U.S. had more than 8000 types of apples in 1900. • Respiratory .infections of swine cause losses of $400 million annually in this country. • The U.S. has some 16,000 local school systems.
