The USDA Forage Crop Investigations Notebooks consist of field notes written by William J. Morse from 1909 to 1930 while he was working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forage Crop Investigations. There are 55 handwritten ledgers documenting Morse's discoveries of foreign plants throughout his international travels. Almost half of the field notes relate to the Dorsett-Morse Oriental Agricultural Exploration Expedition of 1929 to 1931. See also the Dorsett-Morse Oriental Agricultural Exploration Expedition Collection (collection number MS 51) for journals and photograph albums related to the expedition.

The terms "bindweed" and "wild morning-glory" are rather indiscriminately applied to the various species of the genus of plants known by botanists as Convolvulus that are of importance as weeds. In certain limited sections other common names are used to refer to these species, such as gopher vine, pea vine, and wild sweet potato. By far the larger number of these plants are classified under the two species Convolvulus sepium and C. arvensis, the former a native of this country and the latter an introduction from Europe. There are a few other species, principally Convolvulus sepium repens and C. Californicus that occur as weeds in certain regions. The former is a variety of Convolvulus sepium, but is often referred to as C. repens. In many parts of the country these species rank among the worst of all the weeds that trouble the farmer, and in some regions they are by far the worst. Being perennials, the propagate not only by their seeds, but also by their underground parts. It is the latter character especially that makes them such formidable enemies to the tiller of the soil. The common or cultivated morning-glory, with the large bell-shape flowers of various colors, is sometimes found in fields where it has escaped cultivation. This is an annual not difficult to control and should not be mistaken for a species of convolvulus.

The journals have been scanned with a SupraScan 10000RGB scanner; 24-bit true colour, 400 dpi, saved in TIFF-format. Copies of the master images have been converted to Black & White, 1-bitmap images and OCRed with ABBYY Fine Reader v.9 software. Adobe Acrobat v.9 was used for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format. | CONCLUSIONS: 1. The exposure of animals immune against redwater in the low veld proved that this immunity protected against the redwater of that veld. 2. Animals immune against heartwater were protected against that disease in the low veld. 3. Animals which were only immune against redwater contracted a Piroplasma mutans infection when exposed in the low veld. 4. All the animals which were not immune against Piroplasma mutans contracted this infection when exposed in the low veld, but none died. 5. Of the two control animals which were not immune against any of the ,diseases both died; Piroplasma mutans was present ~n both cases, but the deaths were due to heartwater, and in one case complicated with redwater. 6. All the exposed animals showed reactions, due either to heartwater or to some other agency, and this reaction, in the majority of cases, caused an increase in the number of Piroplasma mutans present in the blood. 7. The animals which were immune against heartwater, Piroplasma mutans, and Piroplasma bigeminum showed a slight Piroplasma mutans infection, and also a slight reaction. | The Equine Research Centre, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria gave financial support to this digitisation project.

The journals have been scanned with a SupraScan 10000RGB scanner; 24-bit true colour, 400 dpi, saved in TIFF-format. Copies of the master images have been converted to Black & White, 1-bitmap images and OCRed with ABBYY Fine Reader v.9 software. Adobe Acrobat v.9 was used for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format. | RESUME. 1. Piroplasmosis of the horse is a disease with periods also pronounced by physical-chemical alterations of blood and serum. 2. The haemolysis, produced by the intra-globular parasites, has to be considered to be the cause of a great number of physical-chemical symptoms of the serum, for the latter depend in several points on the state of the blood corpuscles. 3. Volume of blood corpuscles, viscosity, and specific gravity of the blood all decrease. Never was an increase of the viscosity noticed; contrary to what is observed in horse-sickness. 4. Viscosity, specific gravity, conductivity, and surface tension of serum also decrease, the latter especially in the beginning of the disease. The osmotic pressure of serum decreases in every instance; in four cases out of six an increase precedes, and can amount even to more than 100 per cent. The specific gravity decreases in four instances and increases in two instances. 5. Physical-chemical alterations emphasise themselves by the methods in use before the temperature starts to rise (conductivity the first day, depression of freezing point, viscosity, surface tension, and specific gravity). Therefore, if we call incubation period the time between infection and the appearance of the first signs of the disease, it would be in some of our cases of piroplasmosis not more than twenty-four hours (2840, 2841); in other cases (3260, 3248, 3249), about four days; that is to say, much shorter than when only considering the appearance of fever. 6. The physical-chemical alterations of the urine are not typical and regular, like those of serum and blood; some of them are extraordinary, all show dependence on the state of the serum and demonstrate again the regulatory functions of the kidneys. | The Equine Research Centre, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria gave financial support to this digitisation project.