Statistical design and analysis for intercropping experiments. Vol. 2: Three or more crops (Q1275634)

A book of great merit intended for students and researchers alike engaged in problems involving any type of mixtures of species, cultivars, or lines. This Volume II on ``Statistical design and analysis for intercropping experiments'' is a sequel to Volume I from 1993, see the review Zbl 0782.62100 (which dealt with the statistical design and analysis of intercropping experiments in which there are mixtures (intercrops) of two crops and/or sole crops) and is concerned with experiments involving three or more crops. Volume I ends with Chapter 10, while Chapters 11 through 20 contain the material of Volume II. It is very essential for one to fully comprehend Volume I before reading Volume II. The term `intercropping' used here refers to any mixture of species, cultivars, and/or lines grown either simultaneously or sequentially. The author is well-known for his significant and major contributions to statistical design of experiments. Statistical complexities in intercropping studies have been discussed in detail with great clarity and thoroughness, and numerous illustrative examples scattered througout the book should prove very useful in comprehending the complexities of statistical procedures dealing with intercropping experiments. The first chapter (i.e. Chapter 11) of Volume II deals with the scope, goals, and experimental objectives involved when there are more than two crops making up a mixture. The next chapter deals with those situations involving one main crop grown with more than one supplementary crop in which case the number of possible combinations becomes very large, the response model equations are also more complex, and the number of parameters increases as compared to when there is only one supplementary crop. The sophisticated procedures needed to handle these situations are carefully described and illustrated. Intercropping experiments involving three or more main crops (density constant) form the subject-matter of Chapter 13. The ideas and methods presented here extend the results of Chapters 3 and 4 of Volume 1 by introducing more complicated procedures such as land equivalent ratios, relative land equivalent ratios, relative values, etc. for three or more crops in a mixture. Rather than holding the density for a given crop to be constant from mixture to mixture, the material in Chapter 14 deals with those cropping systems which allow varying densities for some or all crops, thus extending and generalizing the results in Chapter 5 of Volume I. Chapter 15 deals with generalizing the concepts and statistical procedures given in Chapter 6 of Volume I where mixing ability effects for two crops in the mixture (individual cultivar responses are available) have been described. Rather than being straight forward, this generalization is quite complex and involved. The next chapter deals with extending the results given in Chapter 7 of Volume I to three or more crops when individual crop responses are not available. Statistical procedures presented here deal with the situation when there is a single response for the mixture. The material of Chapter 17 is a generalization of the material given in Chapter 8 of Volume I. The spatial arrangement, density level, intimacy relations, and orientation for three or more cultivars in a mixture are far more complex than for two cultivars. Procedures and concepts to handle these situations are described and well-illustrated. Chapter 18 includes material on some additional experimental variations for intercropping studies and is an extension of the material in Chapter 9 of Volume I. The five competition indices (namely relative crowding coefficient, relative reproductive rate, competition index, coefficient of aggressivity, and competition ratio) have been extended from two to three or more crops in a mixture. The procedures and techniques presented in Volumes I and II for intercropping experiments are applicable in a wide variety of fields. Some of the areas making use of mixtures and systems of treatments are engineering, medicine and pharmacology, education, agriculture, ecology, nutrition and diet, marketing, exercise and aerobics, golf course, etc. etc. All these applications are discussed in Chapter 19. The final Chapter 20 includes a very extensive bibliography (with over 3000 literature citations) on intercropping experiments and is made available as (i) a hard copy of 124 pages, (ii) disk copy in Microsoft Word, and (iii) Biometrics Unit, Cornell University Web Site, which is http://biom.cornell.edu. Copies of (i) and (ii) are available from the Biometrics Unit, 434 Warren Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 at a nominal cost. The text is clearly written, well illustrated, and extensively referenced. Other attractive features of the book include a combined subject-author index, a list of literature citations at the end of each chapter, lists giving locations of various tables and figures used in this volume, and a list of interesting problems in each chapter. This interesting and readable book will be of considerable value and use to students, teachers, and researchers alike. It is a welcome addition to the academic market and is highly recommended for all graduate and upper-division libraries.