12—Friday, May 31, 1974 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Technion Develops Moisture Barrier for Farming Sand Dunes TEL AVIV — The vast sandy wastelands of Israel and northern Sinai can be turned into highly productive farms by the use of a sub- surface a s ph a It moisture barrier developed by agricul- tural engineers at the Tech- nion-Israel Institute of Tech- nology in Haifa. At a conference of scien- tists and agriculture officials, Dr. Gedalyahu Manor of Technion's Lowdermilk Fac- ulty of Agricultural En- gineering, who headed the project, said that the new method permits intensive growing of high-profit vege- tables and fruits on leveled sand dunes and sandy soils. The latter were considered virtually useless because ir- rigation water would quickly seep beyond the reach of the plants roots. It saves both water and fertilizer and yields larger crops, he noted. The Technion engineers de- veloped a tractor-drawn im- plement with an 8-foot wide wedge-shaped sweep which travels beneath the sand. As it travels, it lifts the sand a few inches while nozzles on its underside spray a cold asphalt emulsion into the cavity created by its passage. The sand falls back into place and the asphalt hard- ens immediately into a moisture-proof membrane Vs inch thick. On successive passes across an area of leveled sand, the implement lays down a series of eight feet wide strips of asphalt, which either overlap one another or are separated by short spaces if minor drainage is desired. Prof. Haim Finkel, dean of Technion's faculty of agri- cultural engineering, noted that the importance of this new method is that it enables profitable farming of areas which the government is in- terested in settling for politi- cal and social reasons. In small-scale experiments performed at Caesarea and Kiryat Haim using the asphalt moisture barrier, substantial yields were pro- duced. At Caesarea 2.9 tons of potatoes per dunam (1/4 acre) were produced. com- pared with only 1.50 tons per dunam on an adjoining plot of land not having the barrier. At Kiryat Haim, tomatoes were grown and the yields from the plot over the asphalt barrier were 48 per cent higher than over a control plot. Prof. Finkel said this new method need not be limited to Israel. Vast areas of the world which have sandy soils and limited water sup- plies include the west coast of South America, the Per- sian Gulf area and the bulk of North Africa with its Sahara Desert. Similar research has been going on in the United States, at Michigan State University and the American Oil Co. of Indiana (Amoco). The American process is de- signed for sandy soils rather than pure sand dunes and uses hot asphalt rather than the cold bitumenous emulsion employed in the Technion method. The Technion equipment and process were developed independently after repeated requests for information to the Michigan State scientists were not answered. 161 Hebrew U. Law Students Get Degrees JERUSALEM—Bachelor of law degrees were awarded to 161 students of the Law faculty of the Hebrew Uni- versity in ceremonies ad- dressed by Justice Joel Suss- man, permanent deputy president of the Supreme Court. Classifieds Get Quick Results took , is GOOD REASONS TO CALL: 862-3200 ANTS boxelder bugs centipedes clothes moths spiders ticks crickets carpet beetles cockroaches fleas silverfish 8. firebrats wasps A-OK PEST CONTROL SERVICE INC. E. John Klein 862-3200 "Victims of Ma'alot Massacre JERUSALEM (JTA) — The following are the names, ages and residences of those who were slaughtered by three Arab terrorists on May 15 in Ma'alot: Aviva Sada, 15, 1Vloshav Elifelet; Yonah Sabag, 15, Tzvia Mor-Yosef, 15, Shoshana Cohen, 17, Yoche- ved Mazoz, 15, Tamar Dahan, 16, Rachel Afuta, 16, Ilana Neeman, 17, Yehudit Madar, 16, Yaacov Ka- bala, 17, Yaacob Levy, 17, Rina Cohen, 15, Sarah Ben- Shimon, 15, Sarah Madar, 15, Sarah Cohen, 15, Malka Amrusi (age not available), Yaffa Cohen (age not available), and Sarah Sofer, 5, all of Safed. Nili Morad, 16, and Michael Sitruch, 17, both of Hatzor, and Ilana Turgman, no age and residence given. In addition were the three members of the Cohen family in Maalot, Yaakov, 50, Fortuna, 40, Elie, 4. Private First Class Zerach Salvian, 21, of Ma'alot, was killed by the terrorists' sniping during the time the children were held as hostages in the school. Hebrew U. Researchers Seek to Save Quail From Extinction JERUSALEM — Ecology researchers in the zoology department of the Hebrew University are involved in an intensive effort to preserve the quail as a species. Within the framework of the university's extensive re- search work in' the Sinai, in fields ranging from archeo- ology to agriculture and hy- drology, ecology researcher Yehiel Zuckerbrot, graduate student in zoology, is now in the second year of a long- term project to study the questions of quail, ecology and behavior. Every year, as they finish the first lap of their migra- tory flight from their summer breeding grounds in Europe to their winter refuge just south of the Sahara, flocks of quail drop exhausted on the Sinai coast after having crossed the Mediterranean. Flying low over the coast at daybreak, they fall into the nearest bushes, an easy prey to unscrupulous hunters. About a 100 years ago, the bushes were a safe refuge where they rested until night- fall before resuming their southward flight. But then the development of commer- cial networks made it fea- sible to ship quail back to E u r op e, and local Sinai Arabs began netting the ex- hausted birds. Until recently, nets stretch- ed from Gaza to Cairo throughout the migratory period (end of August to early October), trapping all but the luckiest birds. While netting methods improved in efficiency, the number of quail caught decreased dras- tically, from well over 1,000,- 000 in 1908 to 150,000 in 1967. Under the direction of Dr. Uriel Safriel, Hebrew Uni- Amsterdam Event Gets Hebrew Name AMSTERDAM (J T A) — The large-scale celebrations of Amsterdam's 700th anni- versary to be held next year will be named "Mokum 700," the Hebrew word for place. Mokum is a popular name for Amsterdam, a favorite place of Jews over the cen- turies. During the Nazi oc- cupation, 70,000 Jews were deported from Amsterdam to extermination camps. A special medal with the engraving "Mokum 700" is to be struck for the celebra- tion. versity Senior Lecturer in ecology, Zuckerbrot is in- vestigating questions such as how the quail know what time of night to leave Eur- ope in order to arrive in Sinai exactly at daybreak, what- exhausts them, how well they s u r v i v e under desert conditions and how they spend their Sinai so- journ.• Dr. Safriel and Zuckerbrot are sponsored by the Na- tional Council for Research and Development of the Is- rael Prime Minister's Office, which is more concerned with questions of population dynamics and management. Quail are a potentially im- portant export item for Is- rael; they provide a valu- able source of protein, their trapping is a source of em- ployment for the Sinai Arabs; and their export price could bring high added value for the government. Boxers Devote U.S. Tour to Ma'alot Slain NEW YORK (JTA) — The cabi youth movement in the United States Maccabi Asso- U.S. and to the Maccabi ciation announced that the Tzair youth in Israel. vist to the U.S. of the Mac- cabi National Boxing Team of Israel has been dedicated to the memory of the "youth of Israel" massacred in the town of Ma'alot. Or An Sidney D. Young, president Occasional Flower of the USMA, urged the American community to sup- • WEDDINGS port this event. The Israeli • BAR MITZVAS team will box a selected na- • SHOWERS tional AAU boxing team in • PARTIES each of four cities: New ,CALL ANY DAY — ANYTIME! York, June 17, Miami Beach, June 20, Dallas, Texas, June 27. A fourth city is yet to be selected. Young said all proceeds will be directed to the Mac Flowers For Every Occasion ... 6-4 WANT TO BUY A HOME? EXCLUSIVE MATCRMAK BROKER ER CALL 559-8333 AETNA REALTY CO. 24469 Greenfield Rd. 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