Agricultural Science Commons^™

Managing Farm Fishponds For Bass And Bluegills, Verne E. Davison

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

A Fishpond is a delightful part of a farm or ranch. Where a good site exists for a pond, it makes good use of the land. The impounded water often has other uses too. It adds beauty to the farm and provides recreation for farmers, ranchers, and their friends.

Fishponds are profitable when they are managed well. To produce the most income and home use, they must afford good fishing year after year. Most disappointments result from mistakes in management.

This bulletin points out the importance of good sites and the necessity for erosion control, proper stocking, and weed control. …

Microorganisms And Soil Structure, T. M. Mccalla

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

SUMMARY

Laboratory tests were made to determine the effectiveness of different compounds and microbial groups in increasing the stability of Peorian loess lumps against the action of falling water drops. The influence of these on percolation tests in the laboratory was also determined.

Many organic substances-dextrose, sucrose, starch, peptone, cullulose, and gum arabic-did not themselves contribute directly to soil-structure stability, though these substances do furnish energy material for soil microorganisms, which can convert them readily into either microbial tissue or decomposition products that increase soil-structure stability. Lignin, proteins, oils, fats, waxes, resin, and paraffin increased the stability of lumps of …

How To Make It: Rabbit Trap Is Easy To Build

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The rabbit trap described in this leaflet has proved satisfactory and is easy to build. It consists of a box with a drop door, held up by a projecting wire, one end of which is attached to a false floor or treadle. The weight of the rabbit on the treadle beyond the fulcrum pulls back the wire and releases the door.

Ec1506 Corn Rootworm Control In Nebraska, Ephriam Hixson, Martin H. Muma, Roscoe E. Hill

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

Extension circular 1506 discusses corn rootworm control in Nebraska.

Ec1551 Insect Control In The Production Of Alfalfa Seed, Ephriam Hixson

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

Extension circular 1551 discusses insect control in the production of alfalfa seed.

Farm Fishponds, Verne E. Davison

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

An important part of soil and moisture conservation is making the best use of every acre on the farm. Where a suitable site for a farm pond exists, no better use can be made of such land than to develop it for the production of fish for the farm family. The recreation the pond affords adds much to the pleasure of rural life.

Thousands of farms have good pond sites. Properly developed and managed ponds may provide both food and pleasure to more than a million farm people.

This bulletin tells how to have good ponds. It explains how to …

Shrubs For Wildlife On Farms In The Southeast, Verne E. Davison

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

On many farms in the Southeast patches of briars and small scrubby growth have been allowed to grow up in pastures, fields, and meadows, where they interfere with good farming. Shrubs have therefore come to be thought of all too often as plants that should be destroyed. The areas they occupy are shrubbed out and burned in an attempt to combat insects and to present an appearance of clean farming. This treatment destroys ground cover and hastens erosion. It deprives wildlife of food and shelter. It reduces the number of beneficial insects but does not exterminate the noxious kinds.

Shrubbing …

The Genetics Congress, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Mice and men reported from

Edinburgh after the Congress

(JOURNAL OF HEREDITY for

September 1939) but since then there

has been silence, as far as getting into the

record any details of the Congress. On

account of the disruption to trans-Atlantic

travel caused by the declaration of

war between England and Germany,

September 3, the American delegation to

the Congress was considerably delayed

in getting back. Only two failed ultimately

to return, Dr. and Mrs. F. W.

Tinney of the Division of Farm Crops

of the University of Wisconsin. They

were among about a dozen members of

the Congress who …

A Zygotic Lethal In Chromosome 1 Of Maize And Its Linkage With Neighboring Genes, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

A Bolivian maize

maize with mosaic red pericarp and cob, here designated by the symbol M-M, crossed with a local inbred strain of maize having white pericarp and cob, W-W, produced in F₁ 21 M-M and 28

W-W plants, not far from the I : I relation expected on the assumption that

the M-M parent was heterozygous for pericarp and cob color, M-M/W-W.

In F₂ and segregating F₃ cultures, however, there were 130 M-M and 64

W-W plants obviously a 2 : I instead of the 3 : I relation expected. Later cultures

increased these records to …

Crow-Waterfowl Relationships Based On Preliminary Studies On Canadian Breeding Grounds, E. R. Kalmbach

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

With the object of obtaining a current insight into the relationship of crows to waterfowl on their breeding grounds, a study was inaugurated in the spring of 1934 and continued through the nesting season of that and the following year. As originally planned, it called for field studies both in Canada and in the northern United States, but drought conditions had so drastically reduced the breeding population of ducks within our borders by the spring of 1934 that, after a futile effort to locate suitable areas in this country, plans were changed and the studies were restricted to Canadian areas …

Diseases Of Upland Game Birds, J. E. Shillinger, L. C. Morley

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Until recently the diseases of upland game birds received comparatively little specific study, except in a few outbreaks in which serious losses were observed. Though highly destructive, many of these outbreaks were of such short duration that the investigations undertaken were chiefly to learn the cause of death and usually were discontinued when losses were no longer noticeable. It has become increasingly evident, however, that every year great numbers of game birds die of disease, the decreases in their numbers frequently occurring in sections closed to hunting, even though food, cover, and other environmental conditions appear ideal. The disease problems …

Local Bird Refuges, W. L. Mcatee

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Birds appeal strongly to the interests and affections of mankind. Not only do they charm by their graceful forms, harmonious colors, sprightly actions, and usually pleasing notes, but they have an even more important claim upon our esteem because of their great economic value.

Birds feed upon practically all insect pests. They are voracious, are able .to move freely from place to place, and exert a steady influence in keeping down the swelling tide of insect life.

For economic as well as for esthetic reasons, therefore, an effort should be made to attract and protect birds and to increase their …

Improving The Farm Environment For Wild Life, Wallace B. Grange, W. L. Mcatee

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

As farms replace virgin lands, whether forest or swamp, marsh or prairie, conditions affecting wild life are revolutionized. Some creatures, especially the larger ones, disappear. Others are benefited, at least during the earlier stages of agriculture, and increase in numbers. This is true of nearly all birds up to the size of the crow and of mammals to that of the rabbit. As agriculture becomes more intensive, however, and woods are cut down, hedgerows eliminated, and rough nooks here and there brought under cultivation, conditions become unfavorable for the smaller forms of wild life.

Uniform mature forest, uniform swamp, or …

Relation Of The Differential Fertilization Genes, Ga Ga, To Certain Other Genes Of The Su-Tu Linkage Group Of Maize, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The Ga, or “gamete” gene of maize can be studied only or principally by its disturbance of normal Mendelian ratios of contrasted characters differentiated by genes linked with it. The amount of this disturbance can be used as a measure of the intensity of linkage between Ga and other genes of the su-Tu group.

Disturbance of the 3:1 ratio of starchy, Su, to sugary, su, endosperm has been most studied. In one of the early papers on Mendelian inheritance, Correns (1902) reported that, although crosses between most starchy and sugary varieties gave an F₂ ratio of …

The A Series Of Allelomorphs In Relation To Pigmentation In Maize, R. A. Emerson, E. G. Anderson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Introduction ... 503

The allelomorph A^b ... 504

The allelomorph a^p ... 505

Dominance ... 508

Summary ... 508

Literature Cited ... 509

The Composition Of Soil Colloids In Relation To Soil Classification, Horace Byers, M. S. Anderson

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

For a period of approximately fifteen years investigators in the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils have been engaged in the accumulation of scientific data concerned with colloid material of the soil. During this period a large volume of accurate information has been secured which has been published in the form of bulletins and journal articles. So far as the Bureau publications are concerned, but little has appeared concerning theoretical aspects of the composition of the colloid. They have concerned themselves, for the most part, with methods of isolation and estimation, and determination of general physical and chemical characteristics.

Propagation Of Aquatic Game Birds, W. L. Mcatee

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The propagation of aquatic game birds in the United States is a small but growing industry. Approximately 50,000 wild ducks and 5,000 wild geese constitute the present annual production. Some of these birds are bred by individual or organized sportsmen for their own use, some by fanciers because of their interest in the birds, and others by breeders for sale. The market for two species, the mallard duck and the Canada goose, demands birds for use in restocking, for decoys, and for food. Sale for food is the exception rather than the rule, and is to the better class of …

Homes For Birds, E. R. Kalmbach, W. L. Mcatee

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Birds appeal strongly to the interest and affection of mankind. Not only do they charm by their graceful forms, harmonious colors, sprightly actions, and usually pleasing notes, but they have an even more important claim upon our esteem because of their great economic value.

Birds feed upon practically all insect pests. They are voracious, able to move freely from place to place, and exert a steady influence in keeping down the swelling tide of insect life.

For economic as well as for esthetic reasons, therefore, an effort should be made to attract and protect birds and to increase their numbers. …

The Frequency Of Somatic Mutation In Variegated Pericarp Of Maize, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Some years ago (Emerson 1922) the writer announced that in F₂ of

certain crosses of variegated with colorless pericarp in maize the heterozygous

individuals changed to self color more frequently than did the homozygous

individuals of the same cultures. No “explanation” of this phenomenon

was then apparent, but later results, though still far from affording

an adequate solution of the problem, have furnished at least a working

hypothesis. The original unpublished paper, with minor modifications,

is given below, under the heading. “Somatic mutations in heterozygous

and in homozygous variegated pericarp.”

Wild Birds Introduced Or Transplanted In North America, John C. Phillips

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The early history of the introduction of foreign birds into this country is mostly clothed in darkness. The records of many attempts, if such there were, have long since been buried in back numbers of local newspapers, and if any experiment was unsuccessful it was soon forgotten. Hence, one trying to get an accurate idea of what has happened soon realizes that he is following a hopeless quest. It is much the same with the transplanting of native birds, especially game birds, which have been carried about all over the country from west to east and from east to west …

Control Of Flowering In Teosinte: Short-Day Treatment Brings Early Flowers, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Attempts to force teosinte into flower in mid-summer, in order to facilitate hybridizing it with maize, have afforded considerable information concerning the flowering time of teosinte under diverse conditions. The possibility that some of this information may be of use to others suggests its publication. The paper is, therefore, to be considered as a help in the technique of teosinte and maize hybridization rather than a contribution ~to the solution of the physiological problems involved.

A Genetic View Of Sex Expression In The Flowering Plants, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

It seems a conservative statement to say that studies

of the past twenty years among animal forms have

tended increasingly to link the phenomena of sex inheritance

with the behavior of chromosomes. To this

result, cytology and genetics have contributed perhaps

almost equally. The number of forms in which

one sex is known to have a morphologically different

chromosome complex from the other sex are many.

That, with respect to the chromosomes, the female of

certain forms produces gametes of a single kind,

whereas the male produces two kinds, and that in

turn an egg fertilized by one kind of …

Size And Structure Of Leaves Of Cereals In Relation To Climate, William Edward Bruner, John E. Weaver

University Studies (University of Nebraska) (1888–1984)

Although a very large amount of work has been done on the variation in form, size, and anatomical structure of native plants grown under different conditions, relatively little attention has been given to similar studies of crop plants. As far as we are able to ascertain, no investigations have been made of variation in the leaves of cereal crops grown under widely different, measured environments.

During the past few years (1920-23), in connection with studies on the development and activities of the roots of crop plants (Weaver, Jean, and Crist, 1922), plant production as a measure of environment (Weaver, 1924), …

Pericarp Studies In Maize. I. The Inheritance Of Pericarp Colors, E. G. Anderson, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Introduction ... 466

Nomenclature ... 467

Pigments present in colored pericarp ... 467

Factor relations of pericarp colors ... 468

Factor relations of red pericarp, P ... 468

Factor relations of cherry pericarp ... 471

Discussion and Summary ... 474

Literature Cited ... 475

Genetic Interrelations Of Two Andromonoecious Types Of Maize, Dwarf And Anther Ear, R. A. Emerson, Sterling H. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Attention was called by Montgomery (1906)to the occasional appearance

of perfect flowers in the staminate inflorescence of maize and similar

cases were reported by Kempton (1913). Montgomery (1911) described

with illustrations a true-breeding type of semi-dwarf dent maize, the ears

of which were perfect-flowered. Perfect-flowered maize was described

and illustrated also by Blaringhem (1908, pp. 180-183). East and

Hayes (1911, pp. 13, 14) noted and illustrated a perfect-flowered sweet

corn. Weatherwax (1916, 1917) showed that typically pistillate

flowers of maize exhibit in microscopic sections the rudiments of stamens

and that staminate flowers show rudiments of pistils.

The Flat-Headed Apple-Tree Borer, Fred E. Brooks

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The flat-headed apple-tree borer, a serious orchard pest throughout the greater part of United States, is found from the Atlantic to Pacific and from Florida and Texas to Canada.

The larva, or grub, of this insect (which in the adult stage is a medium-sized beetle) bores in the bark and wood of a great variety of trees, but is best known as an enemy of apple, pear, peach, and other cultivated fruit trees. Its depredations are felt in almost every locality where orchards have been planted.

Fortunately, this borer almost invariably confines its attacks to the sunny sides of trees …

The Apple-Tree Tent Caterpillar, A. L. Quaintance

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The Apple-Tree Tent Caterpillar makes the unsightly nests or tents to be seen in the spring in trees along roadways, fences, and streams, and' in orchards. It varies greatly in abundance from year to year or over longer periods. Wild cherry is the favorite food plant, but many other plants are attacked, including several orchard fruits, especially the apple. During years when caterpillars are abundant the trees may be so completely stripped of their foliage that larvae are forced to hunt other food plants and hence are to be seen in numbers crawling over the ground and fences and elsewhere. …

Heritable Characters Of Maize: Ix. Crinkly Leaf, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

In 1910 a strain of dent corn obtained at the National Corn Exposition held at Omaha was crossed with a strain of flint corn obtained from the Department of Agronomy of the University of Nebraska. The F₁ plants of this cross were normal and no abnormalities had been observed in the parent strains. But since the latter had not been subjected to self-pollination, there is no assurance that one or other of them did not have in it the character to be described here. In the F₂ generation of this cross there occurred a tpe of plant that …

The Relative Frequency Of Crossing Over In Microspore And In Megaspore Development In Maize, R. A. Emerson, C. B. Hutchison

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

One of the early developments in the study of linkage in Drosophila was the discovery that the phenomenon of crossing over is confined to the female sex (Morgan 1912). The fact that no crossing over occurs in the male Drosophila holds true not only for sex-linked genes but for factors in the autosomes as well and is so well established that it affords a most convenient method of determining to which of the different linkage groups a new factor belongs.

The same phenomenon, but with the sexes reversed, obtains in the silkworm moth. Tanaka (1914, 1915) has found from back-cross …

Heritable Characters Of Maize Ii.-Pistillate Flowered Maize Plants, R. A. Emerson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

In the "freak"

class at the Annual

Corn Show held at Lincoln, Nebraska,

in the winter of 1913-14,

there was exhibited a corn tassel

with a heavy setting of seeds. A few

seeds are not infrequently found in the

staminate inflorescence of maize, particularly

in pod com, and tillers of various

corn varieties often end in ears instead

of in tassels or have tassels, the central

spikes of which are ear like. The freak

exhibited at the com show, however,

was a large. much branched affair.

wholly tassel-like in form except for the

fact that it bore a heavy crop …