Introducing New Horticultural Varieties

VICTOR R. BOSWELL.

A EUROPEAN visitor to the Plant Industry Station of the Department of Agriculture at Beltsville, Md., once asked us, "When your plant breeders develop a new horticultural variety, do you have any difficulty in getting farmers and gardeners to grow it?"

We replied that the Department has no trouble in obtaining prompt and widespread use of a truly improved sort, but that we do have difficulty of an opposite kind.

It is generally difficult to persuade prospective growers and users of a promising new variety to be patient until we feel sure that the variety merits introduction to the public and to wait until enough seed or other propagating material can be produced.

And thereby hangs this tale, which describes how breeders in this country introduce new horticultural varieties. It is devoted mainly to seed-propagated varieties.

The breeding and evaluation of a superior variety is one problem. Introducing that variety to the public on a large scale for prompt and widespread commercial or amateur planting is another kind of problem.

Solutions of the two problems are interdependent. In practice, the solution of the second overlaps the first; evaluation is still continuing while seedsmen or other propagators are developing the first commercial supplies for planting.

An element of risk exists in the acceptance of any new variety. Why, then, are planters so eager to grow new varieties that are developed by breeders in public and private agencies?

American farmers and gardeners are justifiably optimistic. They have observed the progress in varietal improvement over many years and are confident that it will continue. Furthermore, for economic and esthetic reasons, they need improvements in quality and yield of plant products.

Growers know that many promising varieties fail to live up to their promise. Nevertheless, depending chiefly on the originators' record of successes and failures, American growers often switch to new, improved varieties with amazing speed. Such a switch can be made rapidly and on a large scale only when the originator and the commercial seedsmen or other propagators work together with perfect coordination of evaluations, the making of decisions, the increasing of supplies of seeds, and the timing of appropriate announcements.

Vegetable seedsmen and nurserymen in America are to be commended for the remarkable manner in which they have voluntarily collaborated with each other and with public agencies in developing and operating our current practices for introducing the horticultural varieties that are produced by public agencies.

Systems introducing horticultural varieties differ somewhat among the States. State and Federal agencies and public and private agencies also may follow somewhat different procedures. All, however, are attempting to attain much the same ends by means most advantageous under their respective circumstances.

Before the present system of introducing vegetable varieties by the Department of Agriculture w s established in 1944, we had failed to appreciate the necessity of perfect coordination between the Department and the vegetable seed industry in all the details of evaluation, development of commercial supplies, formal introduction, and announcements of a new variety. Wide publicity before ample commercial supplies were available created a demand that the seedsmen could not meet. By the time supplies were ample, the publicity was forgotten, and there were few orders for the new variety. This kind of error can retard the acceptance of a new variety, however good it may be.

If the seedsmen is to be able to meet a demand created for a new variety, he must first be familiar with that variety and all the facts concerning the preparation for its introduction.

THE PRESENT SYSTEM of introducing, new varieties of seed-propagated vegetables bred by the Department and jointly by the Department and State agricultural experiment stations is simple in principle.

It was developed by the Department and the Garden Seed Research Committee of the American Seed Trade Association. It is designed to accomplish three major objectives: Insure adequate evaluation of a new variety before a decision is reached to increase seed supplies for introduction to the public; insure rapid, equable, and technically sound procedures for developing large supplies of commercial seed to meet initial public demands; provide for simultaneous and adequate publicity and catalog listing and other advertising by the respective agencies as soon as there is enough seed for general sale.

As soon as the plant breeder selects a line that appears significantly superior, he must provide enough seeds of it to permit its evaluation by cooperating agencies under a wide range of conditions. Workers at experiment stations, seedsmen, farmers, shippers, food processors, and consumers all usually take part ultimately in these evaluations.

If it is feasible, the breeder produces seed of high quality for the required commercial tests. Usually, however, we find it better to make a contract with one or two seedsmen to produce the necessary seed under carefully controlled conditions. This seed, called the initial increase, is the property of the Government, and it is all delivered to us in accord with the terms of the contract.

Next, we supply without charge a small amount of the initial increase to each of numerous cooperators for observation and evaluation of the variety. The cooperators agree to refrain from increasing the seed or selling it or giving it away without specific permission. The variety is still the property of the Government and has not been released.

If the prospective new variety passes its examinations, we then release breeder seed to bona fide seed producers, "for increase only." This is a decisive step toward introduction but not the final one.

Before we release seed "for increase only," we offer a share of the breeder seed to all bona fide, primary seed producers and State foundation seed organizations in the country that are known to us. We then supply seed to each one who asks for it and who agrees to certain well-established mutual arrangements.

Receivers agree to increase the seed for commercial use but to refrain from advertising it, listing it in a catalog, or selling it to the public until the public introduction date, which is announced by the Department. This date is determined by consultation between the Department and the seedsmen.

The seedsman also agrees to report to the Department each autumn how much seed of the new item he has produced and how much he plans to plant for further increase the next year. The Department agrees to report the total amount reported by the several seeds-men to all seedsmen who are increasing the variety so that all can see how the total supply is developing.

As soon as it appears that the industry has enough seed on hand to meet the initial public demand for the new variety, the Department (independently or jointly with States) names it, announces its availability to the public, and publishes appropriate information about it. At the same time, the seedsmen list the variety in their catalogs and otherwise advertise it and offer it for sale.

Some nice judgments are involved in these procedures. Seed of some vegetables can be increased very fast, the quantity required to plant an acre is very small, and a certain new variety may appear promising for only limited areas or uses. It is feasible in such instances to announce a future date for introduction to the public at the time breeder seed is supplied to seeds-men for growing foundation stock and for commercial increase. Occasionally the date of sale is unrestricted.

The required initial commercial supplies of such seeds as tomato and lettuce can be produced quickly; usually only a year is needed after deciding that a variety merits introduction to the public. Obtaining enough seeds of beans and of peas takes 3 or 4 years and sometimes longer.

This system usually works without any serious hitch.

One should remember, however, that during the period when initial commercial seed supplies are being increased and before introduction to the public, extensive and rigorous evaluations are continuing in commercial-scale tests.

These tests sometimes reveal weaknesses that escaped earlier detection. They may disclose no serious weakness in the new sort but only a lack of any overall superiority. Ina few instances the Department has decided during the stage of commercial increase to "kill" a potential variety because it lacked the superiority that would justify introduction.

THE COMMERCIAL VEGETABLE seeds-men of the United States deserve the greatest share of the credit for this system of increase, evaluation, and introduction. It could not have become possible without their thorough understanding and approval of the Department's points of view; without their knowledge and judgment regarding technical and operating problems; and without their wise devotion to the common good. The system has been invaluable to the vegetable, seed, and vegetable-processing industries, and to the general public.

This system, as followed by the Department of Agriculture and vegetable seed producers, is now largely taken for granted in the United States, but it is not clear to others why competing American seedsmen voluntarily and apparently at their own risk produce hundreds of thousands of pounds of a new variety of bean, for example, that has not yet been introduced to the public by the breeder. Neither is it clear why we, in public agencies, do not hesitate to furnish our breeding lines and potential varieties, years in advance of introduction, to private seedsmen for study and evaluation. This unforced, voluntary collaboration between industry and public agencies and within the industry is built solidly on mutual confidence and enlightened self-interest.

Any unauthorized use or sale of any of our material is so exceptional that we do not consider it a hazard. Apparently, a system like this is now used nowhere but in America. We salute our collaborators in private industry!

The system I have described for vegetable seeds has not been used with flower seeds by the Department of Agriculture because the Department is not developing seed-propagated types of flowers. We see no reason, however, why the procedure should be any less successful with flower seeds than with vegetable seeds.

ONCE THE DEPARTMENT of Agriculture has distributed breeder seed of a vegetable variety to a seed producer, we do not resupply him with seed. From the initial distribution onward, each firm that produces a particular variety maintains its own foundation seed (usually called "stock seed" in the vegetable seed industry).