72 THE PEANUT— THE UNPREDICTABLE LEGUME 



tions from among existing stocks of peanuts. The programs in both 

 Florida and Georgia appear to have developed from selection within 

 hybrid populations from varietal crosses. Meanwhile reports from India 

 (1), the Philippines (24, 49, 56, 61, 62), the Dutch East Indies ^^12), 

 French West Africa ( 16) and elsewhere continued to reach this country. 

 Breeding programs have been in existence in the U.S. Department of 

 Agriculture for 30 years, in State experiment stations for 20 years, and 

 for similar lengths of time in various foreign countries. At present some 

 efifort is being expended toward peanut improvement through selection in 

 nearly all warm temperate and tropical countries. 



Despite the great effort put forth in various countries of the world 

 little success has been achieved in peanut breeding. The products of these 

 researches are not, by and large, the plants which fill the commercial 

 fields ; or if they are they have not, raised to any degree the average output 

 of the areas where released. For example, the average production per acre 

 in the Virginia-Carolina area continues at about 1,100 pounds per 

 acre, notwithstanding the sporadic "improvement" announcements of the 

 past 30 years. During these same years, while the spring wheat industry 

 of the United States and Canada was saved by breeding and pathological 

 researches, and corn production was revolutionized by breeding, the "im- 

 proved" selections of the peanut breeder have continued to maintain the 

 low State average yields (figure 25). 



As yet we can only surmise the biological explanation of Bouffil's 

 (13) statement that the hybridization of p^eanuts has been attempted but 

 that up to the present no positive results have been obtained ; or of Darl- 

 ington's (20) declaration, in reviewing Mendes' (44) cytological work, 

 that perhaps this will open the way to improved varieties from interspe- 

 cific crosses in this plant, which hitherto has been so unresponsive to im- 

 provement through the ordinary methods of cross-pollination and selec- 

 tion. 



While there is no doubt that peanuts are difficult material, the inde- 

 pendent and isolated attempts of the various workers on the problem 

 have been a contributing factor to the slow progress made in this field. 

 It is misleading to take too seriously the comparison of 30 years' research 

 on wheat and corn with the unconnected reports on the peanut over the 

 same period. Few cross-references exist in the literature on peanuts, each 

 man having gone his independent way. Thus there have resulted needless 

 repetitions of effort and the consequent elementary nature of experiments 

 evident in all the literature. The combination of the lack of knowledge, or 

 the possession of erroneous information on the biological nature of pea- 



