Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/397

* WASP. 329 WATCH. tinct personality among the females. One seemed in haste and spent no time on smaller details; another worked with great attention to detail, spending a long time on the closing of her bur- row, arranging the surface with scrupulous care. NESTS OF PAPER-MAKINi; WA8I-W. 1 and 3, Nest o( hornets; la, section showing interior. and sweeping every particle of dust to a dis- tance: another was very careless, carrying the caterpillar in a slipshod way, and making a very poor nest. Among the English-speaking people of German descent the word wasp is frequently used for other groups of hymenopterous insects. Thus an ichneumon-fly is called a parasite wasp, and a chalcis-fly the same. Consult: Saussure, Motiographie des guepes socialcs (Geneva, 1853-58) ; Ashmead, "Classifi- cation of the Entomophagous Wasps," in The Canadian Entomoloyist (Ottawa, 1800) ; "Classi- fication of the Fossorial, Predaeeous, and Parasitic Wasps" (ib., 1900); Fabre, Insect Life (Lon- don, 1901); Peckham, On the Instincts and Habits of the Solitary TF«s;js ( Milwaukee, 1898) ; Howard, The Insect Book (New York. 1002) ; Lubbock, Ants, Bees, and Wasps (New York, 1882) ; Sharp, Cambridge Natural History, vol. vi. (London, 1901). WASPS, The (Lat. Vespw, Gk. S^^xes, iSphCkes) . A comedy by Aristophanes, pro- duced in B.C. 422 at Athens. Its satire is aimed against the proneness of the citizens to go to law. In it Philocleon, an exaggerated suflferer from this mania, is cured by his son, Bdelucleon, by being persuaded to hold court at home. He passes favorable judgment on his own dog, charged with having stolen a Sicilian cheese. In the second half of the play Philocleon is shown as becoming gradually interested in art, and is thereupon congratulated by the chorus on his change of sentiment. WASTE (OF. a-ast, giiast, gast, vast, waste, devastation, from Lat. vastus, waste, desolate, vast ; connected with Olr. fas, AS. iccstc, OHG. wnosti, Ger. wiist, waste, desolate, desert). In the law of real property, any material injury caused or permitted to be done by a tenant of a particular estate to the property, and lessening the value of the estate of the reversioner or re- mainder-man. It is called vohintari/ where the damage is the result of some positive and willful act on the part of the tenant, and permissive where the tenant is unreasonably negligent in omitting to take (iroper measures to prevent the injury. Even though the tenant holds 'without impeachment of waste,' wanton acts of destruc- tion may be restrained by a court of equity. A tenant may cut such timber as may be reason- ably necessary for his own use, or to reclaim land suitable for agricultural purposes, but the destruction of timber to the detriment of the estate is waste. The destruction of ornamental trees will be restrained as waste by a court of equity. The removal of deposits of sand, gravel, clay, etc., and the opening of mines and quarries are waste, unless the premises arc let for such purposes. If open mines, quarries, etc., exist on lea.sed premises, it will be presumed that it was intended that the tenant should work them. The rcnK'dy for waste is an action at law for dam- ages, or an application to a ccmrt of equity for an injunction. Consult the authorities referred to under Keal Phopeuty. WASTE LANDS. A popular term for un- cultivated and unprofitable tracts in populous and cultivated countries. They are very variable in character and include marsh or swamp lands (both fresh and salt), moors, peat bogs, steep and rocky lands, sand, arid lands (see Irriga.- TION), 'galled' and gullied soils, and chalk downs. Their improvement is hirgely a (juestion of ex- pense. It is often more profitable to improve lands already cultivated, and to bring them into a higher state of cultivation and productiveness, than to reclaim waste lands. Tlic means of rec- lamation are also very various ;inil inelu<le drain- age, manuring, mulching, irrigation on arid soils, growth of sand-binding plants on sandy soils, etc. The process of reclamation must as a rule be gradual, especially when the soil is naturally poor, and must include improvement of the physical condition of the soil by proper culti- vation, cropping, etc., as well as increase of plant food by the use of manures and fertilizers, since the addition of even large amounts of the latter to verv poor soils will not alone render them fertile. WATAU'GA ASSOCIATION. In American history, the name given to the first compact of government west of the Alleghanies, signed by the settlers of what is now East Tennessee in 1772 and 1775. (See Tennessee.) Though the articles are lost, the general scheme is known. A legislative coimcil of thirteen was chosen by the signers. This council elected five of their num- ber to exercise judicial and executive functions, and the five chose a chairman. A sheriflf and an attorney were appointed and courts were held regularly. Jurisdiction was assumed, however, over none but the signers, and in consequence outlaws from Virginia and North Carolina flocked in. In 1775 or 1776 the name Washington Dis- trict was given to the territory, and in 1770. at their re(]uest. their representatives were given seats in the North Carolina Assembly. Consult: Ramsey. A.nnals of Tennessee (Charleston, 1853) ; and Caldwell. f<tudies of the Constitutional His- tort/ of Tennessee (Cincinnati, 1895). WATCH (AS. iceecce, from tcwccan, wacian, tvacan, to watch, wake: connected with Goth. icakan, OHG. uahliPn. Ger. wachcn, to watch, Lat. vigil, watchful, wakeful, vigcre. to be lively, Skt. vi'ijaji. to rousel. A small, portable ma- chine for measuring time. The parent of the watch, as of the other modern timekeepers, was the ancient tower clock, the earliest example of which, known as De Vick's clock, is described under Clock. The invention of the spring to take the, place of the weight to drive the wheel- train made the construction of a portable time-