JOWAL OF AGMIMAL RESEARCH 
Vol. XXIX Washington, D. C., July 1 , 1924 1 No. 1 
SEGREGATION AND CORRELATED INHERITANCE IN 
CROSSES BETWEEN KOTA AND HARD FEDERATION 
WHEATS FOR RUST AND DROUGHT RESISTANCE 2 
By J. Allen Clark 3 
Agronomist in Charge, Western Wheat Investigations, Office of Cereal Investigations, 
Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture 
RESISTANCE TO RUST AND 
DROUGHT DESIRED 
In the northern spring-wheat area 
of the United States drought and rust 
are the principal limiting factors in 
successful wheat production, and are 
the causes of enormous losses. Since 
certain varieties of wheat have been 
found to possess resistance to these 
destructive agencies, the problems for 
further improvement are important to 
the wheat breeder. 
The writer here presents some early 
studies made in a cross between Kota, 
a rust-resistant variety of hard red 
spring wheat, and Hard Federation, 
a drought-resistant variety of white 
wheat. The effect of this resistance on 
yield is of great economic importance. 
High yield, however, is not the only 
consideration; the quality of the prod¬ 
uct is of equal importance to that of 
yield. A careful study of the milling 
and baking qualities of the parents and 
hybrids, therefore, is included in the 
present work. 
MATERIAL AND METHODS 
A new variety of hard red spring 
wheat in order to be successful must 
yield more than the principal competing 
commercial variety and be equal or 
superior to it in milling and baking 
qualities. The most extensively grown 
variety of hard red spring wheat at the 
present time is Marquis. The value of 
the parents and hybrids in this study, 
therefore, will be determined in com¬ 
parison with the Marquis variety. 
SELECTING THE PARENTS 
Kota and Hard Federation were se¬ 
lected as parents for the cross here dis¬ 
cussed because they appeared to supply 
the best available material for com¬ 
bining in one study the problems of 
breeding for both rust and drought re¬ 
sistance. The reasons which influ¬ 
enced the selection of the varieties used 
are their high yielding ability under 
conditions of rust and drought, and the 
milling and baking qualities of both 
varieties. They have several con¬ 
trasting morphological characters and 
milling and baking qualities which con¬ 
tribute to their value. The inheritance 
of these is important. 
Both varieties are comparatively 
new to the farmers of the northern 
spring-wheat area of the United States. 
They are new even to the experimental 
agronomist. Neither has been in¬ 
cluded in varietal experiments for 
longer than six years. The writer be¬ 
lieves, however, that they have been 
sufficiently tested to insure their 
successful commercial production over 
wide areas as well as their successful 
use in the mill and bakery. The 
commercial production of both varie¬ 
ties in the United States began in 1919 
and nearly 50,000 acres of each were 
grown in 1923. 
KOTA 
Kota is a variety of hard red spring 
wheat which is resistant to black stem 
1 Beginning with Volume 29, No. 1, the Journal of Agricultural Research will appear semimonthly in¬ 
stead of weekly, the issue dates being the 1st and 15th of each month. 
2 Received for publication Mar. 29, 1924—issued January, 1925. 
3 The i writer wishes to express his appreciation to Dr. Sewell Wright, of the Bureau of Animal In¬ 
dustry, and to Dr. H. K. Hayes and Dr. Fred Griffee, both of the Minnesota Agricultural Experi¬ 
ment Station, for advice and assistance given during the collecting and analyzing of the data. To V. H. 
Florell, at Davis, Calif., Olaf S. Aamodt, at St. Paul, Minn., and J. C. Brinsmade, jr., at Mandan, N. 
Dak., thanks are here gladly given for assistance in growing the material studied and in taking notes thereon. 
The writer also desires to acknowledge the services of John R. Hooker for statistical assistance given. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. XXIX, No. 1 
Washington, D. C. July 1, 1924 
Key No. G-399 
99178—25f-1 
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