This study is the first assessment of the entire soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr] collection of the United State Department of Agriculture National Plant Germplasm System (USDA) reporting quantitative and population genomic parameters. It also provides a new insight into soybean germplasm structure. Germplasm studies enable plant breeders to incorporate novel genetic resources into breeding pipelines to improve valuable agronomic traits. We conducted comprehensive analyses on the 19,652 soybean accessions in the USDA-ARS germplasm collection, genotyped with the SoySNP50 K iSelect BeadChip SNP array, to elucidate the quantitative properties of existing subpopulations inferred through hierarchical clustering performed with Ward's D agglomeration method and Nei's standard genetic distance. We found the effective population size to be approximately 106 individuals based on the linkage disequilibrium of unlinked loci. The cladogram indicated the existence of eight major clusters. Each cluster displays particular properties with regard to major quantitative traits. Among those, cluster 3 represents the tropical and semi-tropical genetic material, cluster 5 displays large seeds and may represent food-grade germplasm, and cluster 7 represents the undomesticated material in the germplasm collection. The average FST among clusters was 0.22 and a total of 914 SNPs were exclusive to specific clusters. Our classification and characterization of the germplasm collection into major clusters provides valuable information about the genetic resources available to soybean breeders and researchers.

Dietary manipulation was used to produce a similar series of milks from both Friesian and Jersey cows. The gross compositions of the milks, the fatty acid (FA) composition of the milk fats, the distribution of molecular sizes in the triglycerides of the milk fat, the melting properties of the milk fats, and the whipping properties of creams containing 360 and 400 g fat/kg were measured. Changes in gross composition and FA composition were as expected from the use of dietary oil supplements, but it was established that the mathematical relation between 18:0 and 18:1 differed between breeds, the Jersey yielding a milk fat with a lower proportion of 18:1 for a given value of 18:0. Control diets free from added fat produced milk fats with essentially unimodal triglyceride distributions, whereas fatrich diets produced bimodal distributions. The slight differences in these distributions between breeds were merely a reflection of variations in FA composition rather than in synthetic procedures. Differences in the whipping properties of creams containing 360 and 400 g fat/kg were consistent with literature observations. Dietary manipulation had little effect on the whipping properties of creams derived from Friesian cows, but caused considerable changes in the corresponding properties of the creams from Jersey cows. The only property that behaved similarly in the creams from the two breeds was the butter time, i.e. the time taken for butter granules to form on prolonged whipping of the cream. A major determinant of the butter time appeared to be the proportion of the fat that was molten at the temperature at which the whipping experiments were carried out.

Al Bîrûni, in his Vestiges of Ancient Nations, written A.D. 1000 (A.H. 390), while describing the customs of the Sabeans, cites the authority of Ibn Ishâc al Kindy, the Christian, in these words:

“Likewise Abd al Masîh ihn Ishâc al Kindy, the Christian, in his reply to the Epistle of Abdallah ibn Ismaîl al Hâshimy, relates of them (the Sabeans) that they are notorious for Human sacrifice, but that at present they are not able to practise openly the same.”

An indescribable charm surrounds the early poetry of the Arabs. Dwelling in the wonderful creations of their genius with these ancient poets, you live, as it were, a new life. Cities, gardens, villages, the trace of even fields, left far out of sight, you get away into the free atmosphere of the desert; and, the trammels and conventionalities of settled society cast aside, you roam with the poet over the varied domain of Nature in all its freshness, artlessness, and freedom.