Russell-Heckle Presents 
SOUTHERN HYBRID CORN 
Bred and Grown Exclusively by the Producers of 
the Famous IOWEALTH Hybrid Corn 
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The Story of Southern Hybrid Corn 
The most dramatic agricultural event of this generation 
is the development of hybrid corn. Almost unknown to the 
average corn grower four years ago, in 1938 fifteen million 
acres were planted to hybrid seed. The yield from those 
acres will be about 120 million bushels more than ordinary 
open-pollinated seed would have produced. 
The research work on hybrid corn, which has put millions 
of dollars into the pockets of farmers throughout the corn 
belt, was conducted largely by research departments main¬ 
tained by commercial seed companies and by the various 
state experiment stations. Most of this work was naturally 
done in the corn belt proper and accordingly the southern 
farmer was forced to sit back and continue to grow old- 
fashioned, out- of-date open-pollinated corns. 
A number of years ago Dr. Stuart N. Smith, who originated 
the famous Iowealth Hybrids—the largest selling hybrids in 
the corn belt—made a trip to the South to study the types 
of corn which are being grown there and to determine the 
possibilities for developing hybrids for southern conditions. 
Dr. Smith returned to his corn breeding station at Ames, 
Iowa, fired with the determination to develop hybrids for 
the southern farmer. He immediately made contact with 
several experimentally minded men throughout the South 
and asked them to co-operate with him in testing out hybrids 
to determine whether or not they were suitable for their 
conditions. He also accumulated seed of all the southern 
varieties of open-pollinated corn and placed them in his 
research fields and began inbreeding on them to develop 
pure inbred lines which could be used in the future for incor¬ 
porating into new hybrids for the South. 
The results of that work, over a period of years, have 
culminated in the introduction this year of a series of 
hybrids especially adapted to the South. These hybrids are 
known as southern Hybrids. 
How Southern 
Hybrids are Produced 
Years of careful research are required before 
any hybrid seed can be produced. The work of 
breeding Southern Hybrids began years ago. 
Inbreeding Was the First Step 
The basis of hybrid corn breeding is “selling,” 
which is the closest kind of inbreeding. The 
breeder starts with a good ear of corn from some 
standard, productive variety. He plants the ear 
and covers the shoots with a paper bag before the 
silks are exposed. When the tassels start to shed 
their pollen the silks are carefully hand-fertilized 
with pollen from the same plant, and then kept 
covered so that no other pollen can reach them. 
(Each kernel on an ear of corn is the result of 
the union of a pollen grain from the tassel with 
an ovary at the base of the silk.) 
The same process is repeated year after year. 
The second year plants decrease rapidly in size 
and vigor as inbreeding continues, but the result¬ 
ing plants also become more uniform. After five 
to seven years of “selfing,” the characters that 
remain are definitely fixed. Because it is possible 
to mate a corn plant to itself, as much has been 
accomplished in five generations as could have 
Inbreds 
been done in seventeen generations of brother- 
sister mating. 
These finished inbreds, which thereafter can be 
grown from year to year without change, are the 
standardized parts which the hybrid corn breeder 
is now prepared to put together. 
Inbreds Are Not Much to Look At 
To the practical corn grower these inbreds do 
not lookr like much. They are small and puny, 
nothing to brag about as corn; but they are no 
longer mongrels like the open-pollinated strain 
from which they started. They are purebreds. 
This is a hard point to make clear. Sometimes 
farmers will ask, “How long will it take for an 
inbred to run out?” The answer is that it never 
runs out. The exciting thing about an inbred is 
that it does not change at all after it has been 
established. 
All of this inbred development has taken many 
years of work on the part of the breeders of 
Southern Hybrid Corn. Thousands of inbreds 
have “fallen by the wayside” for every one that 
has been kept. 
2 RUSSELL-HECKLE 
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