Stories Collection

  1. Current signals are mixed about where the economy is heading. Recent data show that t...
  2. After a 19-month pause in enrollments, land held out of production for 10 years in th...
  3. U.S. retail food prices in 1991 are expected to average 2-5 percent higher than a yea...
  4. When I'm near a peeled onion, my eyes start stinging and tearing. Why does that happ...
  5. Start at the beginning and see how far you can go, thinking of good answers from you...
  6. 1. What dessert would you feed to a string quartet? Matthew Cherry, Maryland ...
  7. Creek Creatures I dipped a net into the creek To see what I would find-- ...
  8. * In what ways do we get news about things that are happening in other parts of the ...
  9. Dear Readers, The wooded mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, where we live ...
  10. Identify each numbered mystery vehicle. Then find its wheel or tire. [ILLUSTRA...
  11. During summer vacation when I was twelve, a sawmill was operating in the woods near ...
  12. One day Anna gave her brother Roberto a surprise. She made his bed and picked up his...
  13. My dad is from Puerto Rico. He has black hair that is thicker than grass. His eyes a...
  14. Zoey lives on the island of Jamaica, near the sea. She goes to the shore every day t...
  15. Farther Than Far I look into the sky and see The leafy branches of a tree...
  16. I have two best friends in my neighborhood. They are brothers. I play with them a lo...
  17. 1. Draw an animal, color it, and cut it out. 2. Trace around it on black paper ...
  18. A Dream I have the ball going down the field. I do not stop to wait or yiel...
  19. Tommy found a rope. "What can I do with this?" He found a long ...
  20. Anne: "What is the first letter of the word yellow?" Kristi: "Y....
  21. I cannot climb the jungle gym. I am afraid I will fall through, and I am afraid of h...
  22. 1. From construction paper, cut out 11 red fish and 11 orange fish. Slide paper clip...
  23. Behind the Mask Behind the Mask There is a girl Smart as a peacock ...
  24. My bow flies across the string, creating squeaks and groans. My fingers feel clunky,...
  25. In this big picture find the ruler, eyeglasses, crescent moon, stopwatch, paintbrush...
  26. I just lost my tooth. Do dogs lose teeth? Eric Voigt, Age 7 Texas D...
  27. I have a stepsister who tattles on me and my friends. What should I do? Lauren...
  28. To make two ice-cream cones: 1. Cut a large paper plate in half. 2. Paint...
  29. The Sport of the Spring When I hit the ball it gets exciting as I run. ...
  30. Little George had a thousand wishes. Once, an elf directed him to a wishing well. Th...
  31. What do you want to be when you grow up? A teacher? A doctor? An astronaut? How abou...
  32. My music teacher thinks I should join the chorus next year, but I don't know if I wa...
  33. 1. Cover an 8-inch cardboard or poster-board square with aluminum foil. Glue or tape...
  34. Moonlight When the moon is set just right, and it's right above the lake, ...
  35. My horse, Bronco, is a beautiful, sweet, and funny horse. I had always wanted a hors...
  36. These people are enjoying a parade on the Fourth of July. * Why do we celebrate...
  37. Is it true that in 1997 fossil hunters found a valley full of dinosaur eggs? Where d...
  38. 1. For the eagle's head, cut out two cups from a cardboard egg carton. Trim these so...
  39. Unscratchable Itch Do you know that unscratchable itch right between your s...
  40. Most Himalayan villages lie in the valleys, where there are small streams, some farm...
  41. Goofus unbuckles his seat belt to reach the snacks. Gallant keeps his seat belt...
  42. Roll a piece of clay into a smooth ball the size of a marble. Drop it onto a hard fl...
  43. A sweatshirt when it is dry or when it is wet? A gallon pail filled with stones...
  44. As I Walk As I walk through the forest and look up at the sky, I see th...
  45. I can't stop thinking about watermelons. Giant watermelons. Juicy watermelons. Wonde...
  46. Would you dare climb an active volcano? Twelve-year-old Branden Kekauli'i Kahawai di...
  47. Why do kites need wind? Bronte Joseph, Age 5 Georgia If you hold up...
  48. Which of these two levers would make it easier to lift the bricks? The longer l...
  49. Whether you look at the letters from left to right or from right to left, a palindro...
  50. The Pose of a Rose When I look at a rose I see its pose, And then I see...
  51. Mom looked worried as she hung up the phone. "That was Jenny next door," s...
  52. One fine day in the land of green hills and blue streams, the king awoke, leaped fro...
  53. Chemicals inside a battery react to make electricity. The reaction occurs only when ...
  54. Mom: Your library book is overdue, Woozy. Woozy: I let Wanda borrow it. It was ...
  55. Which planet of our solar system has the most moons? Jupiter is the current leader, ...
  56. Grapes Grapes, grapes, get more power. Grow and grow until you're sour. ...
  57. Sid knows that there are six white socks and ten black socks in his dresser drawer. ...
  58. You can spy on a snail if you move slowly and silently. Noise or a quick motion will...
  59. Finding the source of brucellosis outbreaks has been made easier by a new DNA fingerp...
  60. Horticulturist Phil Forsline steps from his pickup truck on a cool spring morning, mu...
  61. For almost 70 years, scientists at what's today known as ARS's U.S. Vegetable Laborat...
  62. For much of the year, the southern Great Plains provides livestock producers with an ...
  63. The invasive plant known as hydrilla, Hydrilla verticillata, is sometimes called the ...
  64. There's bad news for many insects that pester North American greenhouses. Scientists ...
  65. Imagine knowing, almost immediately, how much nutrition a calf is getting from the gr...
  66. When hydrologists discuss why earthen dams fail, the conversation soon turns to a phe...
  67. John E. George is at the USDA-ARS Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research L...
  68. The Girls Health Enrichment Multi-site Studies (GEMS program), sponsored by the Natio...
  69. While hiking the outskirts of the Bokkeveld Mountains of South Africa during a sabbat...
  70. For more than 20 years ARS horticulturist Mark Roh has been intrigued by the origins ...
  71. The Florida citrus industry is best known for its orange juice--and for good reason. ...
  72. One chapter in the history of American warfare that should not be overlooked is the e...
  73. Fruits and vegetables are known for their health-promoting levels of vitamins and min...
  74. For years, parents have had a tough time determining what's best to feed their infant...
  75. The National Herb Garden, a popular feature on the grounds of the U.S. National Arbor...
  76. The pink hibiscus mealybug (PHM) is a native of Southeast Asia. But wherever it goes,...
  77. To reach scientists mentioned in this article, contact Don Comis, USDA-ARS Informatio...
  78. There's a reason why farmer Don Skogstad's hilltop knobs have lighter colored soil an...
  79. Making sure taxpayers are getting their money's worth from publicly funded conservati...
  80. Nightcrawlers may be at least partly responsible for the sometimes rapid movement of ...
  81. There's good news for those interested in finding plants that would do best at storin...
  82. America's Corn Belt wouldn't be a Corn Belt without underground drainage. These unsee...
  83. MARKUS DUBACH (D152-1) These tiny (2 mm) round organs, called "root nodules,&q...
  84. Whether it's watermen in the Chesapeake Bay area or farmers in the Midwest, the quest...
  85. Soil scientist Charlie Feldhake says that when he arrived in the Appalachian region i...
  86. A new genetic tool is making it possible to reap many of the nefits of genetic engine...
  87. COPYRIGHT 2006 U.S. Government Printing Office COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group...
  88. COPYRIGHT 2006 U.S. Government Printing Office COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group...
  89. With over 1,000 diet books available on bookstore shelves, popular diets clearly have...
  90. Being overweight or obese continues to be linked with being at a higher risk of devel...
  91. Part of the overall efforts of researchers to help reduce obesity rates in the United...
  92. Some folks have dreamed of the day doctors would discover a "fat gene" resp...
  93. Consuming more plant foods and fewer animal products may help individuals control the...
  94. Nothing gets between folks and their favorite pair of jeans like hot, steamy summer w...
  95. This month, schools nationwide are celebrating National School Lunch Week in honor of...
  96. ARS nutritionist Pamela Pehrsson and colleagues are developing a database that will l...
  97. It's something that happens inside every living cell of every creature within the ani...
  98. Obesity is a growing epidemic in the United States that is leading to spiraling healt...
  99. Healthy at every size? What a concept! The "Every Size" strategy, a hea...
  100. From chewy, all-natural apple bars to a rice flour that helps keep excess cooking oil...
  101. Residents of the Lower Mississippi River Delta are linked by the muddy waters flowing...
  102. Your annual physical may include blood tests for several telltale indicators of your ...
  103. At ARS's livestock and rangeland research facility in Miles City, Montana, forage exp...
  104. A new weapon could be on tap for fighting bacteria that cause mastitis, an inflammato...
  105. Cases of avian influenza infections of poultry and humans have caused the world to be...
  106. Despite the many benefits of no-till farming--including lower energy costs and reduce...
  107. It might be surprising to learn how little is actually known about the role of one of...
  108. Most of the genetic base presently used for breeding new varieties of apples is known...
  109. Drought is one of the environmental conditions farmers must contend with--sometimes p...
  110. With its slightly acidic soils and balmy summer days that give way to cool nights, Ma...
  111. Today's robots are nimbler than ever thanks to artificial muscles made of conductive ...
  112. Fresh fruits and vegetables are rich in essential vitamins and minerals, a quality th...
  113. In the 2002 Farm Bill, the U.S. Congress authorized spending $6 billion on farm conse...
  114. The formidable Formosan subterranean termite costs U.S. consumers hundreds of million...
  115. Sixteen or more species of Fusarium fungi are known to cause the plant disease referr...
  116. The well-tested and superior potato Defender is the only commercial variety in the Un...
  117. A DNA chip, or DNA microarray, is a small glass slide that can reveal the presence or...
  118. At the start of the new millennium, the world's researchers became intimately acquain...
  119. Beef-cattle gains of up to 50 pounds per head should mean more money in the bank for ...
  120. Soft white wheat is the type suited for making foods such as cookies, cakes, noodles,...
  121. A shiny, rust-colored beetle, only 1/8-inch long, scuttles across a kitchen counterto...
  122. Poultry science is, as is all agriculture, a global enterprise. So ARS scientists in ...
  123. Since first being detected in Wisconsin in 2000, the soybean aphid, Aphis glycines, h...
  124. One of the most promising low-cost technologies for remediating soils contaminated by...
  125. Water is one of the necessities for life and for the livelihood of farmers everywhere...
  126. A new process to continuously make films from a milk protein could lead to edible, wa...
  127. Plant physiologist Barbara M. Reed logged tens of thousands of miles over the last se...
  128. Mannitol is a minty-tasting ingredient found in many foods and even in chewing gum. I...
  129. A microbe that causes lesions in wheat leaves that interfere with the plant's growth ...
  130. Among the small, hexagonal pockets of honeycomb that provide shelter to a bustling be...
  131. Rich, creamy pumpkin pie, still warm from the oven and topped with a dollop of chille...
  132. Gazing out over his corn crop, a farmer is watching an irrigation system deliver burs...
  133. Despite fierce global competition, producers of pineapples at lush, scenic fields of ...
  134. A love of chocolate must run in the family--at least when it comes to freeloading fun...
  135. Dust may be a nuisance to a homeowner, but to a poultry grower it can be a disaster. ...
  136. The Willamette Valley in Oregon, starting near Portland and running south of Eugene, ...
  137. Bugs, butterflies, moths, caterpillars, and blooms of dozens of plants come alive in ...
  138. After screening more than 1,000 candidate control microbes, researchers settled on st...
  139. While women are about four times more likely than men to develop weak, porous, osteop...
  140. Scientists once thought that high-protein diets might lead to greater calcium excreti...
  141. There is a revolution or revamping going on that could dramatically change the Americ...
  142. A patent application for converting cleaned and chopped feather material into plastic...
  143. Researchers have discovered the mechanisms a problematic weed uses to overrun and sec...
  144. Oats are much less winter hardy than other fall-sown grain crops, such as wheat, barl...
  145. Nestled in the hills of California's San Joaquin Valley, a tranquil pond invites floc...
  146. Sometimes, looking fondly on tradition and the ways things used to be is seen as bein...
  147. A naturally occurring compound called sampangine, patented in 1990 to treat human fun...
  148. Flax fiber went out of vogue in the United States when the cotton gin was introduced,...
  149. Worldwide, legumes are a multi-billion-dollar industry comprising food, forage, and e...
  150. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that airborne carbon diox...
  151. One approach to coping with loss of methyl bromide as a soil fumigant in commercial s...
  152. A virus known in Europe for more than 40 years, strawberry latent ringspot virus (SLR...
  153. Agriculture can provide ecological services that benefit farmers, the environment, an...
  154. About 60 million years ago, walnut trees began to form vast primeval forests on our p...
  155. When it comes to eating, many Americans value convenience--a mentality that can get o...
  156. Imagine you've just sampled an ounce of chopped peanuts. You chew them between your m...
  157. Humans and charcoal have a long association. The familiar briquettes heating our back...
  158. A splash of light illuminates fecal contamination too small to be detected by eye on ...
  159. New varieties of barley could help solve two national problems: energy dependence and...
  160. Candida albicans and Listeria monocytogenes are two bad microbes. The first, a yeast,...
  161. Aromatic oils in plants help them naturally attract or repel insects and fend off hea...
  162. A micrometer-thick coating of steam-jet-cooked starch is just the thing to improve pl...
  163. In the South, red imported fire ants (RIFA) are unwelcome at everybody's picnic. This...
  164. The emerging science called genomics has given farmers "magic" beans akin t...
  165. A new sensory-testing facility that was 2 years in development recently opened its do...
  166. Fruit-loving insects beware: A technology called CATTS, short for "Controlled At...
  167. Plant physiologist Barbara Triplett understands how opportunity can arise even as dis...
  168. Perhaps nothing is so aptly named as the watermelon. This fruit (technically, it's a ...
  169. Illness during a piglet's first few weeks of life can affect its eventual size and ma...
  170. For most of us, the word "citrus" conjures up images of oranges, grapefruit...
  171. Its rangeland, pasture, and forage ecosystems make the U.S. Southern Plains vital to ...
  172. Few intentionally introduced plant species escape cultivation, and even fewer become ...
  173. Substances listed in their own niche of the Periodic Table of the Elements may repres...
  174. Capped by a large, open sky, northwestern Oklahoma's vast, rolling grasslands create ...
  175. To alleviate mineral deficiencies in sheep and goats, producers in other countries so...
  176. Without zinc, we couldn't survive. We rely on this mineral to help us taste and diges...
  177. Over time, some weeds and fungi have developed resistance to many agricultural pestic...
  178. A new online training course has been developed by USDA's National Agricultural Libra...
  179. Dynamic agricultural systems--as opposed to fixed ones--allow Northern Plains farmers...
  180. Food technologist Thomas P. Oscar wants to make poultry as pathogen-free as possible....
  181. It took more than two decades and involved milestones of scientific discovery by more...
  182. Increased travel and global trade have steadily increased the threat of not only huma...
  183. Ripening apples are vulnerable to sun scald, which causes bronzed or bleached spots o...
  184. Just as humans need vaccines to prevent dangerous diseases like polio and measles, fi...
  185. Like people, plants need their space. The amount of room around them greatly influenc...
  186. For Agricultural Research Service zoologist Ronald Fayer, a parasite called Cryptospo...
  187. In 2001, a package arrived in the mail, addressed to a little-known team in a laborat...
  188. The National Agricultural Library's Water Quality Information Center has developed a ...
  189. Sar-co-PEE-nee-ah. It starts to set in around age 45, when muscle mass begins to decl...
  190. In dry edible beans, anthracnose causes unsightly cankers on plant stems, pods, and s...
  191. While the promise of water or salt has been traditionally used to attract cattle to n...
  192. Each fall for the past 3 years, Renfu Lu has gone into Michigan orchards, picked frui...
  193. From the agency that brought you permanent-press cotton and permanent creases in wool...
  194. Though folk remedies aimed at soothing the common cold abound, there's no vaccine or ...
  195. In the 1800s. planting a hardy and attractive tree called saltcedar along newly laid ...
  196. Varroa mites are devastating honey bee parasites that require chemical controls. Sinc...
  197. Can a tiny beetle spell doom for a rugged, aggressive weed that's already invaded str...