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Fens, the

(Encyclopedia)Fens, the, district, E England, a flat lowland, W and S of The Wash. Extending c.70 mi (110 km) from north to south and c.35 mi (60 km) from east to west, it is traversed by numerous streams. The area...

Palissy, Bernard

(Encyclopedia)Palissy, Bernard bĕrnärˈ pälēsēˈ [key], c.1510–c.1589, French potter. For 16 years he worked in vain to imitate white-glazed pottery (probably Chinese), even burning his furniture to fire his...

Babiš, Andrej

(Encyclopedia)Babiš, Andrej, 1954–, Czech political leader and business executive, b. Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now in Slovakia), grad. Univ. of Economics, Bratislava. He was a petrochemical executive for Chem...

Galway, county, Republic of Ireland

(Encyclopedia)Galway gôlˈwā [key], county, 2,293 sq mi (5,939 sq km), W Republic of Ireland. The county ...

hoe

(Encyclopedia)hoe, usually a flat blade, variously shaped, set in a long wooden handle and used primarily for weeding and for loosening the soil. It was the first distinctly agricultural implement. The earliest hoe...

hybrid

(Encyclopedia)hybrid hīˈbrĭd [key], term applied by plant and animal breeders to the offspring of a cross between two different subspecies or species, and by geneticists to the offspring of parents differing in ...

Jewish Autonomous Region

(Encyclopedia)Jewish Autonomous Region or Birobidzhan bērōbējänˈ [key], autonomous region (1995 pop. 211,900), c.13,800 sq mi (35,700 sq km), Khabarovsk Territory, Russian Far East, in the basins of the Biro a...

Hata, Tsutomu

(Encyclopedia)Hata, Tsutomu tso͞otōˈmo͞o häˈtä [key], 1935–, Japanese politician, b. Tokyo. After 10 years in Japan's private sector, he was elected (1969) to parliament as a member of the Liberal Democrat...

Kara Kum

(Encyclopedia)Kara Kum kärˌə ko͝omˈ [key], two deserts, one in Kazakhstan and one in Turkmenistan. The Caspian Kara Kum or Garagum, the larger desert (c.115,000 sq mi/297,900 sq km), is W of the Amu Darya Rive...

silage

(Encyclopedia)silage ĕnˈsəlĭj [key], succulent, moist feed made by storing a green crop in a silo. The crop most used for silage is corn; others are sorghum, sunflowers, legumes, and grass. In a sealed silo, ty...