to be passed on their usefulness. But it is evident that that usefulness will be confined to siege warfare, so far as ground installations are concerned. Quite apart from the necessity of bury- ing the whole apparatus in shell-proof dugouts, the difficulty of supplying it with oil for constant use is considerable: eighty gallons of mixture with a specific gravity of -8 the contents of a Livens tube weigh 640 Ib. without the transport receptacle, and three shots can be fired in four minutes. Stated in this way the problem is the same as that of supplying an n-in. howitzer emplaced in the foremost trench. The load can be brought up in smaller units, it is true, whereas a shell cannot be subdivided for transport. But it is nine times as bulky, and continuous sup- ply would be as difficult in the one case as in the other. Another consideration is the material itself in some conditions of war- fare petrol and oil may be more precious than iron and steel. Thirty " Livens " machines on one mile of front would consume about 1,000 gal. of petrol (neglecting the oil) per minute of actual continued activity. Fifty-five minutes of this activity on one mile of front would consume as much essence as the whole fleet of lorries belonging to the French Army consumed in a day during the winter of 1917-8. Evidently then the heavy flame projector if used at all will only be used in situations and tasks for which no more economical and handy weapon is available. The ques- tion is do such situations exist? And the answer is evidently that, even if they do exist, they are not found on any considerable frontage at the same time. And so we find that the utility of the immobile heavy flamethrower is restricted to certain points and certain circumstances, such as may here and there be found (but not necessarily foreseen) in siege warfare. Any future that the heavy flame projector may possess in field warfare, or even in large-scale trench warfare, then, will depend on its being made mobile, i.e. on its being mounted in a tank.
The portable flamethrower, on the contrary, found many occasions of useful employment in varied conditions during the World War. Amongst its roles were: surprise attack following a stealthy approach, to enable an infantry attack to debouch from trenches; " mopping-up," i.e. clearing a captured trench system of isolated but still dangerous parties of the enemy while the main attack presses on; blocking the flanks of a captured length of trench; forcing the surrender of enemy parties which have taken refuge in dugouts (perhaps the most frequent, if not the principal r61e in trench-warfare offensives) ; holding off close attack upon a party withdrawing, e.g. after a raid; engaging a strong point frontally while infantry work round the flanks. This catalogue shows the variety of functions which may be and have been carried out by small flamethrowers. It will be noticed that many of these r61es are by no means peculiar to trench warfare, and also that nearly all presuppose close cooperation with small bodies of infantry, the tactical units of the future. It is too much to say that the flamethrower is indispensable in the performance of the average battle task of modern infantry, but it is, on occasion, undeniably more useful than other close-range auxiliaries of the infantryman. Its main handicap is the difficulty of maintaining oil supply in an advance of great depth. This is serious, and may restrict it to employment in the methodical attack and defence of fortified regions. (C. F. A.)
FLECKER, JAMES ELROY (1884-1915), British poet, was born at Lewisham Nov. 5 1884, the son of the Rev. W. H. Flecker,
D.D., afterwards headmaster of Dean Close school at Cheltenham.
He was educated at Uppingham and Trinity College, Oxford,
proceeding later to Caius College, Cambridge, where he studied
oriental languages for two years before entering the consular
service. He was sent to Constantinople in 1910 and to Beyrout
in 1911. There he married a Greek lady. But his health failed
early and he died at Davos Platz, Switz., Jan. 3 1915. His poetic
output, though small, was choice, showing much affinity with
the French Parnassien school, as well as with Swinburne and
Francis Thompson. During his lifetime he published four small
volumes of poetry; one more and two privately printed volumes
appeared after his death, and his Collected Poems, with an intro-
duction by J. C. Squire, were published in 1916. He also left two
unpublished dramas, Hassan and Don Juan. A short satire,
1920
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91.558 51,608 31-035 29,571 19,945 14-237
1910
57,699 37,782
22,982
5,471
18,749 4.127
Increase
5 ^ 36-6
35-o 440-5 6-0 245-0
The Last Generation (1908), and a novel, The King of Alsander (1914), were his only important prose works.
FLEMING, SIR SANDFORD (1827-1915), Canadian engineer and publicist (see 10.494), died at Halifax, N.S., July 22 1915.
FLINT, ROBERT (1838-1910), Scottish divine and philosopher (see 10.521), died at Edinburgh Nov. 25 1910.
FLORIDA (see 10.540). The pop. of the state in 1920 was 968,470 as compared with 752,619 in 1910, a gain of 215,851 or 28-7% for the decade. There were 17 cities with a pop. of over 5,000; those exceeding 10,000 with their proportional gain for the decade were:
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Jacksonville
Tampa .
Pensacola
Miami
Key West .
St. Petersburg
Despite a comparatively rapid growth of its cities and towns the pop. of the state was still predominantly rural. The urban pop. (those living in cities and towns of over 2,500 inhabitants) numbered 3 5 5,8 2 5 in 1920, 36- 7% of the whole, as contrasted with 219,080 or 29-1% in 1910. This gave Florida the largest propor- tion of urban population of any southern state. During the win- ter months the population was each year largely augmented by thousands of tourists and winter residents. The E. -coast and Gulf-coast resorts were the chief objectives, but many of the inland towns and cities were beginning to attract visitors. In 1916 the Baptists were numerically the strongest denomination, with a membership of 131,107; the Methodists second, with 114,821; followed by the Roman Catholics, 24,650; Episcopalians, 10,399; Presbyterians, 10,170; and Congregationalists, 2,878.
Industries and Commerce. Florida's most extensive industry is agriculture. According to figures of the Florida Experiment Station there were approximately 6,000,000 ac. of land in farms in 1920, not including open or fenced range lands. Of this, 1,700,000 ac. were in crops and 200,000 ac. of crop lands were idle; 180,000 ac. were in fruit; 1,120,000 ac. were in pasture; and 2,800,000 ac. in woodland. On approximately one-third of the cultivated acreage crops were produced by intertillage (the growing of two or more crops on ihe same land at one time) and by succession planting (where two or more crops follow each other on the same land during the year). The number of farms in Florida in 1910 was 50,016; in 1920, accord- ing to preliminary figures of the U.S. census, 54,006. Fruit was the most important crop. By the practical eradication of citrus canker, and the control of the white fly, through the vigorous campaign that has been waged against these enemies of citrus growth under the direction of the State Plant Board, the citrus industry has been greatly benefited and has prospered despite the fact that some of the groves in the more northern parts of the state have suffered by several severe winters. In 1920 the production of oranges was 8,500,000 boxes valued at $18,700,000, and of grape fruit 5,000,000 boxes valued at $10,000,000. In the sub-tropical part of the state pineapples, lemons, guavas, and avocadoes were grown profitably on a commercial scale. Other fruits were peaches, pears, bananas, grapes, figs, and limes. Other crops produced in Florida, with their 1920 yields and values were : Cr
Indian corr
Oats (bus.)
Hay (tons)
Wild hay (tons)
Peanuts (bus.)
Rice (bus.)
Irish potati
Sweet pota
Sorghum s;
Sugar-cane
Cowpeas (bus.)
Velvet beans (I
Cotton (bales)
Tobacco (Ib.)
Pecans (Ib.)
The encroachments of the boll weevil and the scarcity of farm labour, together with the unsettled condition of the cotton market, caused a falling off in the production of cotton during the decade 1910-20, and in many sections where cotton used to be raised it is no longer planted. The tobacco-growing section of western Florida produces profitably a shaded leaf, grown from Cuban and Sumatran seed, which is in great demand in cigar manufacturing. The pecan industry is comparatively new, most of the commercial groves having been planted since 1905. It is believed that in the northern part of
'P
Quantity
Value
(bus.) .
10,530,000
$10,530,000
1,020,000
612,000
, .
132,000
2,508,000
>ns)
20,000
500,000
s.) . .
3,220,000
4,798,000
72,000
126,000
es (bus.)
2,625,000
5,250,000
oes (bus.)
4,275,000
5,130,000
rup (gal.)
84,000
840,000
syrup (gal.)
6,110,000
6,000,000
us.)
184,000
506,000
s(bus.) .
1,300,000
2,500,000
2s) . .
18,000
1,530,000
4,620,000
2,218,000
3,000,000
1,250,000
