PROBLEMS AND PROGRESS IN 
SMALL GRAIN BREEDING 
By Samuel J. Hadden 
Plant Breeder in Charge 
Small Grain Breeding and Development Program 
In the 20 year period 1901-1920, South Carolina 
(the most important oat producing state east of the 
Mississippi), produced an annual average of about 
5% million bushels of oats. The principal varieties 
available during that period were Red Rustproof and 
Fulghum. In the 10 year period 1941-1950, production 
averaged over 16 million bushels. Acre yields in the 
first period averaged 18.7 bushels; in the last decade 
the average rose to 24.9 bushels. Although improved 
cultural and fertilization practices were doubtless 
important factors in the increase of yields and total 
production, the breeding and distribution of the 
“Victorgrain type” of oats in 1940 was surely a prin- 
cipal factor. Increases in total wheat production and 
acre yields can likewise be correlated with the devel- 
opment of superior varieties, and equivalent stimu- 
lation of grain production can also be shown in other 
southern states. 
BREEDING WORK MUST BE CONTINUOUS 
Progress in grain breeding in recent years has been 
gratifying to the breeders and profitable to the 
growers, but we cannot afford to become complacent 
and lessen our efforts. As new disease-resistant vari- 
eties are being developed, nature is constantly evolv- 
ing new diseases, or new races of the old, to attack 
them. Fortunately, the U.S.D.A., through the Divi- 
sion of Plant Introduction, is searching the world for 
breeding stocks possessing disease-resistance fac- 
tors, and we have access to these introductions for 
use in our breeding program. It is known that races 
of rust capable of thriving on the presently resistant 
oat varieties are spreading. Several years ago we 
anticipated this potential threat by crossing the 
Landhafer and Santa Fe introductions with our bet- 
ter adapted oats and are now testing thousands of 
progenies of these combinations. 
Similarly, new and virulent races of wheat mildew 
are becoming more prevalent. Suwon 92 and Asosan, 
new U.S.D.A. introductions highly resistant to these 
races, are being used in an intensive back-cross pro- 
gram to fortify the mildew resistance of Coker 47-27. 
NECESSARY TO WORK WITH LARGE NUMBERS 
Since many of the desirable characters in the 
small grains are conditioned by the action of multiple 
genes, it is necessary to work with tremendously 
[5] 
SAMUEL J. HADDEN 
large numbers of individual selections in order to 
find the lines possessing the favorable combinations. 
The growing of such a large volume of breeding 
material involves the seeding of thousands of in- 
dividual rows in the main breeding nurseries at 
Hartsville on approximately 25 acres. These plant- 
ings are aside from a special yield test nursery on 
the Dave Cameron Farms at York and a disease-test 
plot on Brays Island Plantation at Yemassee, S. C. 
TWO-CROP SPEED-UP SYSTEM 
Beyond the requirements of large plantings, spe- 
cial disease tests, and physical facilities, there is the 
further consideration of a very important element— 
time. By extra early harvest of the most promising 
breeding lines from the Brays Island nursery, and 
through the cooperation of the Branch Experiment 
Station at Aberdeen, Idaho, an extra generation or 
increase is obtained annually from a crop grown 
there each summer. The seeds are returned to Harts- 
ville in time for a second crop from fall seeding, and 
progress is thus greatly speeded. 
