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interest

(Encyclopedia)interest, charge for the use of credit or money, usually figured as a percentage of the principal and computed annually. Simple interest is computed annually on the principal. Compound interest, paid ...

National Forest System

(Encyclopedia)National Forest System, federally owned reserves, c.191 million acres (77.4 million hectares), administered by the Forest Service of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. The system is made up of 155 nationa...

Indian Affairs, Bureau of

(Encyclopedia)Indian Affairs, Bureau of, created (1824) in the U.S. War Dept. and transferred (1849) to the U.S. Dept. of the Interior. The War Dept. managed Native American affairs after 1789, but a separate burea...

county

(Encyclopedia)county [Fr., comté,=domain of a count], division of local government in the United States, Great Britain, and many Commonwealth countries. The county developed in England from the shire, a unit of lo...

cypress, in botany

(Encyclopedia)cypress, common name for members of the Cupressaceae, a widely distributed family of coniferous shrubs and trees, several yielding valuable timber. The major genera are Juniperus (juniper), Thuja (arb...

peat

(Encyclopedia)peat, soil material consisting of partially decomposed organic matter, found mainly in swamps and bogs in various parts of the northern temperate zone but also in some semitropical and tropical region...

Leavenworth

(Encyclopedia)Leavenworth lĕvˈənwûrthˌ [key], city (1990 pop. 38,495), seat of Leavenworth co., NE Kans., on the Missouri River; inc. 1855. It is the commercial center of a farm and livestock region, with flou...

Kumamoto

(Encyclopedia)Kumamoto ko͞omäˈmōtō [key], city (1990 pop. 579,306), capital of Kumamoto prefecture, W Kyushu, Japan. It was an important castle town in the 17th cent.; one of its castles (built 1651) still sta...

Montpelier, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Montpelier mŏntpēlˈyər [key], city (1990 pop. 8,247), state capital (since 1805) and seat of Washington co., central Vt., at the junction of the Winooski and North Branch rivers; inc. 1855. The ec...

Mirrlees, Sir James Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Mirrlees, Sir James Alexander, 1936–2018, Scottish economist, Ph.D. He taught at Cambridge (1963–69, 1995–2003), Oxford (1969–95), and Chinese University of Hong Kong (2002–18). Building on ...