Book Description

Atkins eloquently portrays the extreme hardships of Minnesota farmers during the grasshopper plagues of the 1870s.She examines local, state, and national relief efforts, which she reviews in the context of 19th-century social welfare philosophy. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Harvest of Grief
Harvest of Grief, by Annette Atkins chronicles the grasshopper plagues of the 1870s and discusses the hardships faced by the farmers of that decade and the failure of the government to supply them with public assistance.

I found out about this book doing a search on the Internet after reading "On The Banks of Plum Creek" by Laura Ingalls Wilder to my son. When Laura and her family moved to Minnesota, their crops were devestated by the "Rocky Mountain Grasshoppers" that swept over the western praries from the years 1873-1878 and caused millions of dollars in damages.

This book (Harvest of Grief) deals with the farmers' plight in Minnesota.

The 1870s were a time of change in America and it's territories. Ideals were changing and it wasn't the farmer that was the cornerstone of American society any longer, but money that proved success. With families like the Rockerfellers and the Vanderbilts, the definition of "success" was rapidly changing.

The book tells of the theories behind why the grasshoppers came and why they suddenly disappeared after 5 years, how farmers tried desperately to save their farms, often losing them to mortgage companies, and those who begged and borrowed trying to survive along with their families.

The book also tells of how they tried to get federal relief from the government and why this was difficult. Hundreds of people were in some cases left homeless with nothing more than a blanket and a sheet, without a bed to sleep in nor a floor to make one on.

Annette Atkins uses Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family as a reference several times in the book, along with others who suffered greatly during that time, when being poor and unable to pay your debts was looked on as a character flaw, the result of laziness and an unwillingness to work.

This was an excellent book and I highly recommend it. ... Read more

Book Description

This book deals with photosynthesis and growth of plants/crops from an environmental engineering and environmental physics point of view. A theory to CO2 diffusion or photosynthesis of a single leaf, a plant, plant community and forests is applied and discussed in detail in this book.It would be of interest to horticulturists, agronomists, agricultural engineers, environmental ecologists and crop physiologists. ... Read more

Book Description

High-efficiency micropropagation, with relatively low labour costs, has been demonstrated in this unique book detailing liquid media systems for plant tissue culture. World authorities (e.g. von Arnold, Curtis, Takayama, Ziv) contribute seminal papers together with papers from researchers across Europe that are members of the EU COST Action 843 "Advanced micropropagation systems". First-hand practical applications are detailed for crops – including ornamentals and trees – using a wide range of techniques, from thin-film temporary immersion systems to more traditional aerated bioreactors with many types of explant – shoots to somatic embryos. The accounts are realistic, balanced and provide a contemporary account of this important aspect of mass propagation.

This book is essential reading for all those in commercial micropropagation labs, as well as researchers worldwide who are keen to improve propagation techniques and lower economic costs of production. Undergraduate and postgraduate students in the applied plant sciences and horticulture will find the book an enlightened treatise.

Book Description

Horticultural Reviews, Volume 28 presents state-of-the-art reviews on topics in horticultural sciences. The emphasis is on applied topics including the production of fruits, vegetables, nut crops, and ornamental plants of commercial importance. ... Read more

Book Description

This text/reference examines environmentally-safe and integrated techniques for effective pest management and provides an intensive review of the secondary metabolites related to insect resistance—detailing their bioactivity, biosynthetic pathways, mechanisms of action, and genetic regulation for improved methods of pesticide utilization and crop protection. ... Read more

Book Description

An effective food quality assurance system is essential throughout during harvest and retail display to provide a consistently good quality supply of fresh food crops to the consumers and to protect the reputation of a given marketing label. This book covers various aspects of quality handling and assessment, including handling parameters, quality evaluation, CA and MAP storage conditions in a broad sense. It emphasises on developing better methods of monitoring quality and safety attributes of fresh produce as part of a quality assurance system and quality assessment and maintenance. To meet the changing demands for quality, availability, cost, appearance and service the actors in the supply chain need to cooperate. We have included eighteen chapters. They are: Enzymes and Quality Factors of Fruits and Vegetables; Volatile Flavours in Strawberries: A Description of The Components, and How to Analyse Them; Methods to Evaluate the Antioxidant Activity; Essential Oil Drugs-Terpene Composition of Aromatic Herbs; Fruit and Vegetables Harvesting Systems; Integral Handling of Banana; Economics and Organisation of Horticultural Postharvest; Production; Handling Machinery and Damage inflicted to the Product; Mechanical Damage During Fruit Post-Harvest Handling: Technical and Physiological Implications; Harvest and Postharvest Conditions for apples and Pears; Rapid quality evaluation techniques of horticultural crops; Table Grape Postharvest Management and Safety Issues; Fruit Postharvest Technology: Instrumental Measurement of Ripeness and Quality; Developmental Changes During Strawberry Fruit Ripening and Physico-Chemical Changes During Postharvest Storage; Processing of horticultural Crops in the Tropics; Quality Dynamics and Quality Assurance of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables in Pre- and Postharvest; Modification of Fruit Ripening by Genetic Transformation; Quality of Equilibrium Modified Atmosphere Packaged (EMAP) Fresh-Cut Vegetables. This book will be especially useful to researchers engaged in post harvest research, graduate and post-graduate students majoring in food sciences and researchers. ... Read more

Book Description

Without preaching about the benefits or drawbacks of marijuana, This Is Cannibis provides straightforward facts about its 4,700 years of cultivation for fiber, food, and medicine; the current debate as to its therapeutic potential; the vast underground commercial success it enjoys; and the uneven laws surrounding its sale, possession, and use. While textbook-like in the breadth of information, the writing has the readable pace of good journalism and is supplemented with personal stories, pertinent statistics, black-and-white photos, a glossary, and a timeline. ... Read more