Disease-Resistant Oats

by T. R. STANTON

THIS IS the story of a single oat seed and how it revolutionized a large industry. The story goes back to 1929, the year it was found that Victoria oats could withstand crown rust. Crown rust was the scourge of oats; even though three or four varieties were partly resistant, crown rust caused heavy losses every time it became epidemic. Worse, there seemed to be scant prospect of ever breeding oats that could resist it. Two years later, opportunities for constructive breeding were further enhanced by the discovery of the even greater resistance of the variety named Bond. Further, Victoria and Bond were found to be resistant to certain smuts. So they became founders of family trees whose fruits include the amazing Clinton and Benton oats.

The Department of Agriculture had brought Victoria in 1927 from Uruguay, where it had been selected from the so-called "common oat of the country," which probably had been introduced many decades earlier from the Mediterranean region. Bond was originated by the Department of Agriculture of New South Wales from a cross between a sport of the wild red oat (Avena sterilis), and Golden Rain, the well-known Swedish variety of common oats (A. sativa). It was brought here in 1929.

Victoria is a late, vigorous red oat belonging to the species A. byzantina. Bond likewise is a red oat, but of midseason maturity and with a very stiff straw and plump grains. Neither Victoria nor Bond is satisfactory for farm production in this country, but for breeding material they are among the most valuable ever introduced into the United States.

In 1930, at what was then the Department's breeding laboratory in Arlington, Va., Victoria was crossed with Richland. Richland, the pollen or male parent, is a Kherson type with high resistance to stem rust and excellent crop characteristics. It had been grown extensively in the Corn Belt since 1916. From this pollination only one original crossed, that is, only one so-called "baby hybrid" seed was obtained. But that one seed was enough to change radically the production of oats in the principal producing area of the United States.

The precious seed was planted at Aberdeen, Idaho, in 1930. In 1931 and later, numerous selections from the progeny of this plant were tested for rust and smut resistance at several stations.

From these progenies a group of early short-strawed, Richland-like selections were obtained. They had a combination of resistance to the rusts and smuts, high yield and quality, and a straw that stood up better than that of Richland. From the group, Boone, Control, and Tama were distributed by the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station. Vicland, Cedar, and Vikota were increased and distributed, respectively, by the experiment stations of Wisconsin, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

These are now dominant varieties of oats in nearly all Corn Belt States. In several States, they are grown almost to the exclusion of other oat varieties. They also have spread rapidly into the Northeastern States. It is estimated that they were grown on approximately 30 million acres in 1946, two-thirds of the oat acreage of the United States that year. They have added many millions of dollars to the agricultural wealth of the country and have placed oats on a much better economic basis. Vicland is the most widely grown of the group. According to agronomists at the Wisconsin station, the 400 million bushels of Vicland oats constituted one-fourth of the 1945 national oat production.

So far, about 30 named varieties have been obtained directly or indirectly from Victoria crosses. Seven named kinds stem from Bond crosses—fewer than from Victoria because of the difficulty in finding lines that are sufficiently uniform.

Bond, however, is an excellent parent. Clinton and Benton are the first varieties developed from Bond crosses to be extensively increased for distribution in the Corn Belt. Three others, Eaton, Bonda, and Mindo, were scheduled for later distribution.

Clinton and Benton originated as selections from a mating between Iowa D69 and Bond made at Ames, Iowa, in 1932. The Iowa D69 parent was the product of earlier cooperative oat-breeding work at the Iowa station. It originated from a cross between Green Russian, one of the pre-Victoria kinds, and Richland, but was not quite good enough to distribute for commercial production.