"Practical Horticulture, Seventh Edition, " is a classic, scientifically oriented book for basic horticulture. It presents readers with the fundamentals of horticultural science and its applications in both the commercial and home sectors. Easy-to-read, the books's ample illustrations, chapter objectives, and chapter-ending review questions, help readers learn the concepts. Some exciting new features to this edition include:

• Updated with timely coverage of hot environmental topics.
• The latest information on horticultural science for indoor and outdoor plants.
• A new chapter on careers in horticulture has been added.

The Use and Fate of Pesticides in Vegetable-based Agro-ecosystems in Ghana reviews current knowledge on pesticides use in vegetable farming in Ghana and establishes the fate of pesticides in situ in tropical vegetable-based agro-ecosystems as well as their environmental and public health impacts on selected population groups. A field survey showed that vegetable farmers often spray pesticides on prophylactic basis due to lack of information. Although some farmers may be aware of pesticide hazards, adequate protection is hardly taken to minimize risks. About 70% of exposed farmers had a reduction of 30% or more in whole blood acetylcholinesterase activity. About 95% of the farmers interviewed reported symptoms attributable to pesticide exposure. Water, waterbed sediment, and vegetable crops were checked for residues of the pesticides monitored on the farmers? fields. Residues detected in water and waterbed sediment indicated that these have come from runoff from vegetable fields and that the measured levels were transient. Pesticide residue levels detected in five vegetable crop types (tomato, cabbage, pepper, onion, and eggplants) were correlated to the minimal risk levels (MRLs) set by the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Mean intakes of residues by 22- to 75-year old adult farmers were found to be low and did not seem to be associated with health risk. Data on persistent pesticide residues in farmers? breast milk and blood serum indicated the presence of DDTs, dieldrin, HCB, and HCHs. When daily intakes of DDTs and HCHs to infants through breastfeeding were estimated, some farmers accumulated these compounds in breast milk above the threshold for adverse effects, which raise concerns on children health. Evidence was found for persistence of isomers of endosulfan and its sulfate metabolite in tomato cropped soil and plant tissues. However, the residue concentration in tomato fruits decreased to a level below the Codex MRL given a two-week pre-harvest interval during which no application of the chemical is done. The publication concludes that successful action to reduce the negative impact of pesticides requires sustained, low cost, and well-targeted training interventions.

Students and scientists in the fields of environmental chemistry and/or science, farmers, agricultural extension officers and environmental and health regulatory agencies will find this book very useful.

Bio-inoculants in Horticultural Crops, Volume Three in the Advances in Bio-inoculant Sciences series, focuses on real-time application of novel microbes that have been proven to enhance and improve plant health and productivity. The book provides comprehensive information on a range of biological approaches and mechanisms for the improvement of horticultural crops being practiced in different production systems. Covering the subject from historical developments to recent advances in microbial interventions, it addresses the potential role and bio-mechanism of bio-inoculants for challenges including stress tolerance, production, commercialization, application methodology, challenges and future roadmap for sustainable production system of horticultural crops. This volume will be useful to scientists, academicians, and students of horticulture, agriculture microbiology, plant protection, and other related subjects.

G.HAINNAUX Departement Milieu et Activites Agricoles, Centre ORSTOM, 911 Avenue d' Agropolis, B.P. 5045, 34032 Montpellier Cedex , France. Solid state fermentation, popularly abbreviated as SSF, is currently investigated by many groups throughout the world. The study of this technique was largely neglected in the past in European and Western countries and there is now a high demand for SSF, meaning in food, environment, agricultural, phannaceutical and many other biotechnological applications. It gives me satisfaction to note that the importance of this technique was realised at my department way back in 1975 since then, our team has put concentrated efforts on developing this technique. xvii Foreword Advances in Solid State Fermentation Foreword M. PUYGRENIER Agropolis Valorisation, Avenue d' Agropolis, 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. On the name of the Scientific Community, I would like to express the wish that this International Symposium on SSF should be successful. Solid State Fermentation is part of biotechnology research. It consists on seeding solid culture medium with bacteria or fungi (filamentous or higher) and on producing, in this medium (solid components and exudates) metabolites and high value products. In fact, this process is very old. In older industries such the food and agricultural, this technique has been extensively used. An example of this is the production of pork sausages and Roquefort cheese. Pharmaceutical industry could make extensive use of SSF in the production of secondary metabolites of many kinds and development in this direction is soon expected.

This book was developed from the papers presented at a symposium on "Water Relationships in Foods," which was held from April 10-14, 1989 at the 197th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Dallas, Texas, under the auspices of the Agricultural and Food Chemistry Division of ACS. The editors of this book organized the symposium to bring tagether an es teemed group of internationally respected experts, currently active in the field of water relationships in foods, to discuss recent advances in the 1980's and future trends for the 1990's. It was the hope of all these con tributors that this ACS symposium would become a memorable keystone above the foundation underlying the field of "water in foods. " This strong foundation has been constructed in large part from earlier technical conferences and books such as the four milestone International Symposia on the Properties of Water (ISOPOW I-IV), the recent IFT BasicSymposium on "Water Activity" and Penang meeting on Food Preservation by Maisture Control, as well as the key fundamental contributions from the classic 1980 ACS Symposium Series #127 on Water in Polymers, and from Felix Franks' famous seven-volume Comprehensive Treatise on Water plus five subsequent volumes of the ongoing Water Science Reviews. The objective of the 1989 ACS symposiumwas to build on this foun dation by emphasizing the most recent and maj or advanc."