Communication.

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To the Editors of the Crimson:

The past few days of cold weather bring to mind the need of a place for skating during the winter. The ponds about Cambridge are free from snow during only a small part of the cold season, and even then they are so inaccessible that comparatively few men can afford to spend the time necessary to go to them. If on the other hand, a place were provided near by, and the lce kept in condition for skating the greater part of the winter, it is probable that as many students would engage in this form of exercise as take part in any other college sport.

The suggestion that Holmes Field be flooded has been heard many times by the writer; is there any sufficient reason why the suggestion should not be acted upon? Two reasons why it has not been done in the past have been quoted, viz., fear of injury to the grass and to the cinder track. If it is possible for harm to be done to either of these by ice, the conditions which usually prevail on Holmes Field during the winter are the worst possible and the addition of six inches of water, enough to cover the field, would dimiinish rather than increase the harm.

But if for these or any other reasons the flooding of Holmes Field be impracticable, there can surely be no reasonable objection to giving nature the small amount of aid necessary to transform the lower part of Norton's Field into a pond. There was very fair skating on this field for several days last winter. Skating throughout the greater part of the cold weather may be assured merely by making provision for letting on enough water from time to time to form a thin sheet over the field; this would freeze in one night and renew the ice surface when it had become roughened by use or covered by snow. The expense certainly would not be great.

Have the students sufficient interest in skating to take any action in this matter?

AGITATOR.