The purpose of the study is to examine the state of agricultural management of grainproducing district in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The paper, based on field work exploring the economic activities of farming households, investigates the role of grain farming for the rural economy. Special attention is devoted to the crops, livestock, agricultural machines and the employment structure of rural workers. Field survey was carried out in 1996 and 1997 at four villages in Ghulja county, which are located about 700km west of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The results of the survey are summarized as follows:
(1) Wheat and corn are major crops, which covers about 70% of the total cultivation land of Ghulja county.
(2) Farm households practice multiple management, which is composed of livestock breeding and grain cultivation. It is the notable characteristics of the agricultural production on the study area. Straw is used for fodder, while manure is used for the crop production. At the same time, livestock are the main source of cash incomes of farming households.
(3) Farming households are dependent on the grain crops and livestock in Ghulja county.
(4) The majority of rural workers engage in agriculture. At present, the percentage of households holding agricultural machines is very low. However, the main farm works, such as cultivating, sowing, and harvesting wheat, are done by machine on commission. The problem of surplus workers has come to the surface recently, which would need to be solved in the area.

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This study aims to research the relation of human and natural environment on Ainu place-names in Hokkaido.
The place-name has been chosen from Ainu place-names in Hokkaido that expresses natural environment. There are place-names about cliff, scarp, landslide, plain, marsh, river, ravine and their modifier. Almost 2, 300 of 2, 900 place-names are related to river and ravine.
Place-name of “pet” is distributed more around the river on the coast from Shiretoko to Muroran. It is affected by Ainu at Kuril. Oppositely, place-name of “nay” is distributed more on the northern Hokkaido. Place-names “pet” and “nay” are little in Osima Peninsular. This is affected by Japanese from Honshu. Diversity of place-names “pet” and “nay” are indicated in distribution along Tokachi River and Tesio River.
Place-name is composed of stem and modifier. Stem expresses a common environment and characteristic modifier shows the place-name on a point. The place-name reflectsd the life style of Ainu people, who have lived with nature.
Therefore, further research of the relation between Ainu place-names and natural environment is needed.

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This paper clarified that glacial geomorphology and late Pleistocene glacial fluctuations in the Ichinomata-dani Valley, Azusa-gawa River, southeastern part of the northern Japanese Alps. In this valley, there was no previous study about glacial geomorphology and geology.
Based on the distribution of the glacial landforms and deposits, such as cirques, U-shaped valleys, and terminal, lateral and ground moraines, and the differences in dissection of glacial landforms, three glacial stages : the Nakayama-nokkoshi stage, Yokodoshi-sawa stage, and Higashitenjo stage, in order from oldest to youngest, are recognized in the study area. The glacial terminus in each stage was located at 2, 120m, 2, 260m and 2, 600m in altitude, from older to younger. Glacial landforms of Yokodoshi-sawa and Higashitenjo stages consist of fresh cirques and glaciated valley, which had been slightly modified by periglaciation, but those of Nakayama-nokkoshi stage are composed of dissected trough. These show that glacial retreat stage for a long time and/or non glacial stage existed between Nakayama-nokkoshi and Yokodoshi-sawa stages.
According to the tentative correlation of glacial stages in the southern part of the northern Japanese Alps, glacial stages in the Ichinomata-dani Valley are correlated as follows: 1) Nakayama-nokkoshi stage, the early stage of the Last Glacial period (before 60ka); 2) Yokodoshi-sawa stage, the first glacial advance in the late stage of the Last Glacial period (about 25ka); 3) Higashitenjo stage, the Last Glacial maximum (about 20ka). In the Late Glacial, there was no glacier in the Ichinomata-dani Valley.

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A pigumie dragonfly, Nannophya pygumaea Rambur, appears in a swampy paddy-field at the small valley surrounded the Miocene hill in Sue-cho, west suburbs of Fukui City, Central Japan. In this paddy field, cultivation had been renounced initally since the consolidation of field in 1970s. The dragonfly inhabits every year in the low herbaceous community of this field but uninhabits in the high one. It generally flies very low close to the ground only in low herbaceous area of marshland avoiding the attack by other larger dragonflies, and also propagates itself only in this area. The soil condition of inhabited area was compared with that of uninhabited one, in this study. The outline of results is as follows:
The soil texture was both very fine, HC, dominant clay mineral in the soil was chloritevermiculite intergrade, and they were hardly different between inhabited and uninhabited area. The reaction of both soils was acid, and the pH value of inhabited area was lower than that of uninhabited area. The cation exchange capacity was considerably high in both soils, but basesaturation percentage was very low, especially in inhabited area. The available phosphorus was also relatively low in inhabited soil. The following was concluded from these results: The pygumie-dragonfly-inhabited soil has very low fertility, where only the low herbaceous plants could grow, and this soil condition have been maintained in a long term. On the other hand, the pygumie dragonfly do not inhabit in the area of a relatively fertile soil, where the vegetation rapidly succeeded to the high herbaceous one.

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Retreats of snowpatch margins were investigated in 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997, and snow surface lowering were measured in 1996 and 1997 at a snow accumulation hollow in the Daisetsu Mountains. Discussions on ablation were made in relation to air temperature and distribution of vegetation cover and bare ground. In the area where snow disappeared in May or June, alpine wind-blown dwarf scrub or wind-beaten bare ground are dominant. In the area where snow disappeared by late July in 1994, 1996, 1997, and middle August in 1995, alpine snowpatch vegetation was dominant. In the area where snow disappeared after these dates, development of vegetation cover was not observed. This snowpatch finally disappeared by late August in 1994, 1996, 1997, while it turned into a perennial one in 1995. The lowering rates of snow surface were the greatest (15cm/day) in a period from middle July to early August. As variation of the lowering rate and that of the air temperature corresponds well, it may be said that the lowering rate is to be controlled by the air temperature. Snow-margin retreat rate on the western margin of this snowpatch was constant about 0.5m/day in 1994 and 1995. However, as far as 1996 and 1997, the rate increased near the end of August in 1996 and 1997. On the other hand, the rate fluctuated widly at the eastern margin. The rate was the fastest (1.5m/day) from middle July through to early August. During these periods, air temperature were also the highest of all the measurement period. Air temperature during the observed period in 1994 was the highest (18°C) of the four years, and the rate during the period at the eastern margin is also the fastest (1.8m/day). These results show that the retreat rates on the eastern margin are greatly controlled by air temperature, but that the rates on the western margin were not because of topographical influence.

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