Forestry in South Dakota

Ever since the first true home builder staked out his claim on the great plains of the Northwest the problems of tree growth, both for fruit and protection, have been continual subjects of experimentation. Each person brought either seeds or plants from the South or East, depending upon the section whence he came. These plants were in a majority of cases failures or disappointments. History is said to repeat itself, and if we were to judge all history by the records of tree planting, both by the early pioneers of this country and by their descendants as they ventured into the interior, we should find that the later generation pursued the same plan as that tried by their forefathers. The colonial settlers brought seeds and plants from the mother country. The pioneers of the Northwest carried them from the mother state. In both cases, however, the results were practically the same, both failures. The younger generation thought, perhaps, that because they were not going outside the limits of their own country, the experience which came to the Puritans would not come to them. It has taken years for this lesson to become firmly impressed upon the people, but the great majority have come to appreciate its importance. The unsuccessful attempts to import from the East forced those that were determined, to look about them and see what nature had here provided. In the search for plants for groves and shelter belts, the native woodlands that border the rivers and lakes and have survived in the ravines, furnished the desired material, but the source from which to draw a fruit supply was not so easily found

Squashes

From those who have attempted growing either pumpkins or squashes, in the more newly settled portions of our State, there comes almost universal complaint; that the vines while making a satisfactory growth, do not set fruit. There is an abundant production of flowers but an almost complete failure of fruit. This question was so constantly met with, that during the past two seasons a series of observations were made upon plants of this class with a view of determining, if possible, the cause of the failure as well as a more or less complete remedy for it. A very little observation revealed the cause of the failure to be a lack of proper pollination, due to an absence of insects capable of transferring the pollen of the male or staminate flowers to the female or pistillate flowers. In the pumpkins and, so called, winter squashes the pistillates are at considerable distance, five to twenty feet often, from the pollen bearing flowers. In this easer the wind, which is usually an active agent in the dispersing of pollen, plays no part, or if any it is too insignificant to be taken into account in commercial squash growing

Tomatoes, Beans, Onions. A Cheap Hot House

Too much stress cannot be put upon the importance of the tomato as a garden crop for South Dakota. There is no reason for the annual importation of hundreds of bushels of this fruit which could be produced at home, and the money saved. With a view of aiding the prospective grower in the selection of varieties an extensive trial of the several kinds of tomatoes was made. In these tests all the varieties under consideration were treated as nearly alike as possible. All were sown upon the same day, March 1.5, in soil of uniform character; were shifted to pots of various sizes at the same time, i.e., to 3-inch pots April 6; 4-inch pots May 4; and were all set in the field on the same day, May 31. The subsequent culture was the same for all cases of variety tests. The harvesting and weighing were done with equal care and precision. The following table Varieties Compared, explains itself. The yield, size and color of the various sorts can be seen at a glance. The relative earliness of the varieties can be determined from the date of the ripening of the fruit. The comparison of the varieties as to yield per acre is just, because the conditions were those of a commercial patch, and the total area occupied was considerably more than an acre. In all cases the yield of the plants, as recorded in each test, unless otherwise stated, is that of ripe fruit only, and all plants used in the tests were grown under the same conditions and treated the same, prior to planting in the field, as those used in the general variety test, unless otherwise stated in the description of a particular experiment

Forage Plants

Smooth or Hungarian brome grass is a native of southeastern Europe, and grows in the more sterile soils in waste places along roadsides, fields and pastures. It seems to have come into prominence as an agricultural grass only recently, though it was known to the earlier botanists, and many of them gave excellent descriptions of it. All speak of it as a very hardy grass, some calling it a weed, others praising it highly for its value as a forage plant. The general cultivation of this grass was first begun in Hungary, where it soon became noted for its ability to withstand severe and protracted drouth [sic]. Concerning the first introduction of this grass into our country, Professor Scribner says: From the records at hand it appears that Hungarian brome was first introduced into the United States from France by the agricultural experiment station at Berkeley, California. In Bulletin No. 22 of that station, issued November 15, 1884, the seed of this grass is offered for distribution, and the statement made that our experience indicates that it will do well here [California] either with or without irrigation.\u27 During the past five or six years this grass has been cultivated at a number of the agricultural experiment stations in various parts of the country and also by farmers in many sections, particularly in California and Kansas.

Tomatoes

That tomatoes cannot be successfully grown and ripened in the open air in South Dakota, is an idea very generally met with throughout the state. But judging from the results of our experiments, during the season of \u2793, then, must have been some fault in the methods of culture pursued by those failing to ripen a paying crop. There are conditions to be overcome in nearly all climates and the one here is the short season of plant growth. The past summer was perhaps one of average length, yet the period, as shown below between frosts was too short by over a month. The time at which frosts of spring may no longer be feared is generally between May 25 and June 1. This year our plants were set in the field on May 29, and a killing frost came Sep. 15, thus giving 108 days for plants to grow and mature their fruit, a period altogether too short to expect any fruit to ripen, much less a paying crop, were the seeds planted in the open. The number of day’s necessary, under favorable circumstances, for a tomato to grow from seed and mature its fruit is one hundred and forty days. But since we have only about one hundred days to depend on, the deficiency must be made up. How is it to be done\u27? Surely not by attempting to ward off the fall frosts. The other alternative then is to get the plants far enough advanced before planting them in the field to insure the maturing of the fruit

Fungous Diseases, Insect Pests, Fungicides and Insecticides

This attacks both leaves and fruits and often also the young twigs. Though the fungus grows on both sides of the leaf it is most conspicuous on the upper surface. It appears as a network of fine greenish brown or blackish filaments and causes the leaves to become discolored, curl up and fall off. On the fruit it produces irregular, dark greenish brown, velvety blotches and while not causing any great amount of decay, hinders growth and deforms the fruit. In very bad cases young fruit shrinks up and falls off

Treatment with FoxP3+ Antigen-Experienced T Regulatory Cells Arrests Progressive Retinal Damage in a Spontaneous Model of Uveitis

FUNDING: This work was funded by Fight for Sight, The Eye Charity (CSO project grant award: 3031-3032), and The Development Trust of the University of Aberdeen (Saving Sight in Grampian) (Grant codes: RG-12663 and RG-14251). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: We thank the Iain Fraser Flow Cytometry core facility, and the Microscopy and Histology core facility of the University of Aberdeen.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Nontuberculous mycobacteria, Zambia

Clinical relevance of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) isolated from 180 chronically ill patients and 385 healthy controls in Zambia was evaluated to examine the contribution of these isolates to tuberculosis (TB)-like disease. The proportion of NTM-positive sputum samples was significantly higher in the patient group than in controls; 11% and 6%, respectively (p<0.05). NTM-associated lung disease was diagnosed for 1 patient, and a probable diagnosis was made for 3 patients. NTM-positive patients and controls were more likely to report vomiting and diarrhea and were more frequently underweight than the NTM-negative patients and controls. Chest radiographs of NTM-positive patients showed deviations consistent with TB more frequently than those of controls. The most frequently isolated NTM was Mycobacterium avium complex. Multiple, not previously identified mycobacteria (55 of 171 NTM) were isolated from both groups. NTM probably play an important role in the etiology of TB-like diseases in Zambia

SARS-CoV-2 vaccines elicit durable immune responses in infant rhesus macaques

The inclusion of infants in the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine roll-out is important to prevent severe complications of pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infections and to limit transmission and could possibly be implemented via the global pediatric vaccine schedule. However, age-dependent differences in immune function require careful evaluation of novel vaccines in the pediatric population. Toward this goal, we assessed the safety and immunogenicity of two SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Two groups of 8 infant rhesus macaques (RMs) were immunized intramuscularly at weeks 0 and 4 with stabilized prefusion SARS-CoV-2 S-2P spike (S) protein encoded by mRNA encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNP) or the purified S protein mixed with 3M-052, a synthetic TLR7/8 agonist in a squalene emulsion (Protein+3M-052-SE). Neither vaccine induced adverse effects. Both vaccines elicited high magnitude IgG binding to RBD, N terminus domain, S1, and S2, ACE2 blocking activity, and high neutralizing antibody titers, all peaking at week 6. S-specific memory B cells were detected by week 4 and S-specific T cell responses were dominated by the production of IL-17, IFN-γ, or TNF-α. Antibody and cellular responses were stable through week 22. The immune responses for the mRNA-LNP vaccine were of a similar magnitude to those elicited by the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine in adults. The S-2P mRNA-LNP and Protein-3M-052-SE vaccines were well-tolerated and highly immunogenic in infant RMs, providing proof-of concept for a pediatric SARS-CoV-2 vaccine with the potential for durable immunity that might decrease the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and mitigate the ongoing health and socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19

The sensorium at work: the sensory phenomenology of the working body

The sociology of the body and the sociology of work and occupations have both neglected to some extent the study of the ‘working body’ in paid employment, particularly with regard to empirical research into the sensory aspects of working practices. This gap is perhaps surprising given how strongly the sensory dimension features in much of working life. This article is very much a first step in calling for a more phenomenological, embodied and ‘fleshy’ perspective on the body in employment, and examines some of the theoretical and conceptual resources available to researchers wishing to focus on the lived working-body experiences of the sensorium. We also consider some possible representational forms for a more evocative, phenomenologically-inspired portrayal of sensory, lived-working-body experiences, and offer suggestions for future avenues of research