As befits a volume in the Advanced Series in Agricultural Sciences, this book was written with problems of practical agriculture in mind. One of the ways of controlling plant disease is by using resistant cultivars; and from the wide literature of genetics and biochemistry in plant pathology I have emphasized what seems to bear most closely on breeding for disease resistance. This has a double advantage, for it happens all to the good that this emphasis is also an emphasis on primary causes of disease, as distinct from subsequent processes of symptom expression and other secondary effects....

The purpose of this book is to provide the reader with some basic information applicable to cattle feeding. It is intended to adapt some of the basic principles of nutrition in applied form. During the past few decades there have been various changes in type and form of feeds available for livestock feeding due to new kinds of equipment. Mechanization has made it possible to perform certain opera tions of the beef production program more efficiently and economically. With all the new innovations and advances in animal nutrition combined with the capabilities of the computer, it becomes very...

The development of a crop, and therefore its health, is always the result of interplay between biological and environmental factors, as influenced by human agency. In other words, crop health is a highly complex affair. This book is concerned with only one group of agents affecting crop health, the pathogens, and not with animal pests or direct effects of physiological or weather factors. Even within this one group, however, the interaction of causal agents with environmental and biotic factors is highly complex. No less complex is the effect of cultural practices on the crop and its health....

In keeping with the spirit of an Advanced Series in the Agricultural Sciences, we have attempted to address herein most of the current research areas being used to characterize, describe and manage salt-affected soils. Because of a certain amount of personal bias inherent in our individual viewpoints and backgrounds, some areas have been accorded more emphasis than others. It has been our goal, however, to provide either detail about, or at least a recent reference to, each major area of current soil salinity research. This information, coupled with what we hope to be a rather logical...

Much has been learned about the proper and judicious use of fertilizers. Fertilizer application by farmers has grown from an art to a science. As food producers have strived to increase crop yields by overcoming nutrient deficiencies the use of fertil izers has increased dramatically. This has created a large chemical industry capable of supplying the needed plant food elements. A more complete understanding of soil chemistry and plant nutrition has led to greater fertilizer use with improved fertilization methods and crop cultural practices. Improved fertilizer technology has led to the...

Geoffrey R. Dolby, PhD One of the principal characteristics of a scientific theory is that it be falsifiable. It must contain predictions about the real world which can be put to experimental test. Another very important characteristic of a good theory is that it should take full cognisance of the literature of the discipline in which it is embedded, and that it should be able to explain, at least as well as its competitors, those experimental results which workers in the discipline accept without dispute. Readers of John Parks' book will be left in no doubt that his theory of the feed ing...

Compared with forces occurring in soil mechanics problems in civil engineering, the forces that are applied to soil in farming operations generally have a short duration, less than a few seconds, a small loaded area, no more than a few square decimeters, and small intensities, 10 bar being a high value. On the other hand, soil properties vary widely between those of a weak mud and a stone-like dry soil. Tillage and related applications of force to soil are practiced worldwide in farming. Tillage operations are performed on one hectare of land for every three human beings. This means that for...

The Plant Root and the Rhizosphere was a major topical feature of the first International Symposium on Factors Determining the Behavior of Plant Pathogens in Soil held at the University of California, Berkeley in 1963. The symposium was edited by K. F. Baker and W. C. Snyder and published under the title Ecology of Soil-Borne Plant Pathogens. Since that time, several other international efforts, either on the root-soil interface specifically or on topics relating to the root environment, have provided"a wealth of valuable information basic to promoting the culture of healthier, more...

Properly treated sewage effluent becomes an alternative source of irrigation water, and at the same time it provides a convenient means of sewage disposal through land treatment to prevent potential health and environmental hazards caused by uncontrolled flow of wastewater. The objective of this volume is to provide the reader with a comprehensive up-to-date overview of the principles and practices of irrigation with treated sewage effluent, including special reference to arid quality of the water (e.g. pathogenic organisms, salt, nutrients). The present volume describes the main components...

Developments in statistics and computing as well as their application to genetic improvement of livestock gained momentum over the last 20 years. This text reviews and consolidates the statistical foundations of animal breeding. This text will prove useful as a reference source to animal breeders, quantitative geneticists and statisticians working in these areas. It will also serve as a text in graduate courses in animal breeding methodology with prerequisite courses in linear models, statistical inference and quantitative genetics.