022 



a L K A N I N a S IN BEE CULTURE 



OoTOBsa, 1921 



THE uame of 

 Luther Bur- 

 bank, the 

 plant wizard of 

 C a 1 i f rnia,- is 

 known all 

 around the 

 world; but in 

 these latter 

 days we have a 



new wizard in the person of our sketch, 

 Prof. H. D. Hughes, head of the farm crops 

 department of Iowa Agricultural College. 

 He has not simply made two blades of grass 

 grow where only one grew before, but has 

 made many of them develop and perform 

 wonders. If he had done no more than to 

 discover this new annual sweet clover, or 

 Hubani, as it is now called, he would have 

 been famous; but he has made some other 

 discoveries in the line of new and better 

 plants that will make him one of the really 

 great world benefactors. We can not com- 

 pare Burbank and Hughes, because they 

 have exploited different fields. 



One can not be in contact with this re- 

 markable man vnthout realizing that he is 

 in the presence of genius itself. In spite 

 of the great discoveries that have been laid 

 to his credit, he has a transparent geniality 

 that makes it easy for one to see the real 

 heart of the man. The picture shows him 

 as he really is — his delightful personality, 

 the geniality of Douglas Fairbanks and the 

 genius of Luther Burbank. 



In addition to his great achievement, the 

 discovery of the new Hubam clover de- 

 scribed in our last 

 issue, which is one 

 (if the greatest dis- 

 coveries known in 

 agriculture and bee 

 culture, too, he has 

 I lone some other 

 things that deserve 

 something m o r e 

 than a mere passing 

 reference in a bee 

 journal. Briefly I 

 will attempt to 

 euunierate a few 

 things that I have 

 been able to obtain 

 from his friends 

 and colleagues, for 

 he is extremely ret- 

 icent about his own 

 exploits. In.stead 

 of saying, ' ' / have 

 done so and so," he 

 will say, "It has 

 been developed at 

 the Iowa Agricul- 

 tural College, ' ' as 

 if he were not a 

 factor in the thing. 

 While beekeepers 

 are not supposed to 

 be particularly in- 



PROF. H. D. HUGHES 



Something More About the Man Who 



Has Done and Is Still Doing so Much 



for 'Bee Culture and Agriculture 



By E. R. Root 



Prof. H. D. Hughes and his characteristic smile. 



t e r e s t e d i n 

 c o r n and in 

 growing it, they 

 ought to be in- 

 t e r 6 s t e d in a 

 honey plant that 

 will restore the 

 old and over- 

 cropped corn 

 lands thruout 

 the South and West. This means that farm- 

 ers with worn-out lime lands will propagate 

 the plant, and the beekeepers will get the 

 benefit. The time has now come when the 

 needed plant food which has been taken off 

 for so many years will have to be put back, 

 and Hubam will do the trick. 



There are eleven achievements that his 

 associates place to his credit. Let us review 

 briefly some of these: 



(1) During the Great War, when seed 

 corn was scarce, Prof. Hughes worked out 

 the Ragdoll seed-corn germinator. This de- 

 vice is now recognized as the best method 

 for testing individual ears. So useful is it 

 that it is now being introduced all over the 

 country. 



(2) Prof. Hughes does not claim to be 

 the discoverer of a new corn ; but he took 

 a new variety, the Silver King, and bred it 

 systematically for five years, improved it, 

 and then distributed hundreds of samples 

 to farmers. Today Silver King is grown 

 in Iowa more than any other strain. 



(3) In 1903 he undertook co-operative ex- 

 periments with farmers to determine why 

 alfalfa was not grown more extensively in 



Iowa. He found the 

 cause, i. e., lack of 

 inoculation and lack 

 of lime on a land 

 supposed to have 

 enough. This work 

 encouraged the \)V0- 

 moters of alfalfa in 

 other States, an<l 

 helped to establish 

 alfalfa as a stand- 

 ard coin-belt crop. 



(4) Prof. Hughes 

 improved a method 

 for preventing rust 

 on oats; and after 

 three years of work 

 he was able to re- 

 duce the labor in- 

 volved, by which 

 the seed required 

 per acre could be 

 treated in only four 

 minutes. 



(5) The Ames 

 hulling and scarify- 

 ing machine was an 

 invention of Prof. 

 Hughes that took 

 liim about eight 

 years to develop. It 

 is one of his great 



