Utac, a New Wheat

Utac, a New Wheat how it was produced By Dr. George Stewart, Agronomist, Utah Agricultural College and Experiment Station THIS year "Utac" wheat, an entirely new variety, is being grown on about twenty farms, principally in Cache Valley and Sevier Valley, Utah. This variety is a production of the Utah Experiment Station, and its name, chosen by President Peterson of the Utah Agricultural College, is a combined abbrevia- tion of "Utah A. C." The accompanying photographs bring out the most important quality of this new wheat, which is its ability to stand erect on land where the old varieties lodged badly enough to reduce yield and to cause trouble in harvesting. In addition to this, the wheat has long, club heads, the chaff of which holds the grain firmly and prevents loss due to shattering of the grain. The grain is white and rather hard, whereas most of the old varieties on the dry-farm lands are hard and red. During the last three or four years red grain has brought a price that is less by about 8 to 1 5 cents a bushel. "Utac" wheat is adapted to production on dry-farming lands where winter-killing is not serious and where the soil and moisture conditions are so favorable as to cause the ordinary varieties to lodge. Turkey wheat and Kanred wheat, which is merely a selection of Turkey, do not have straw of sufficient strength to permit their standing erect if the yields are going to be 35 bushels or more to the acre. While considerable areas of our dry-farming territory are in regions where the yields will be smaller than this and where lack of moisture is the serious problem, there is still an important pro- portion of the acreage, such as large parts of Cache Valley and adjacent regions, and smaller areas in almost all parts of the state, where the yields will be very high. It is in these sections of the dry- farming territory that this new variety of wheat will likely find a welcome reception. In the Sevier River Valley of Utah, especially in the general vicinity of Richfield, there is a territory wherein spring wheats are seeded but where the common varieties such as Dicklow and Federa- tion do not seem to be adapted. The variety "Sevier." named from its having been first found in that locality, is an important variety. "Utac" wheat was tried last year in that region and it was thought to be very much superior to Sevier wheat. It was, in fact, in that region that the plant-breeding work which finally resulted in "Utac" wheat was begun.

Mar., 1929 UTAC, A NEW WHEAT 393 § i A ' Fig. 1. "Utac" Wheat in Sevier County on Same Farm and Beside the Field Shown in Fig. 2. This field Yielded 71.4 Bushels an Acre. Manufacturing a New Variety The plant-breeding process by which a new variety is produced may almost be likened to a manufacturing process. In 1918 and 1919, the writer made a survey of the wheat fields of Utah and found a hitherto unknown variety growing in Sevier Valley, Utah. During the next two or three years this variety was grown on the experimental farms at Logan. A study of the characters and behavior of the variety in comparison with the ones known in the United States revealed the fact that this was a new variety. In keeping with the place of its discovery, the name "Sevier" was given to it. At the time it was found in the neighborhood of Richfield, farmers and other interested people reported it to be the predominant variety on account of its ability to fill the grain properly even when it lodged on the wet land of that valley. It was observed also to have the quality of holding the grain firmly in the chaff. During its first two years on the Experimental Station ground at Logan, this variety proved to be a high yielder when conditions were such that it could remain erect. This prompted the initiation of a plant-breeding project to unite the stiff straw of the Dicklow variety with the desirable qualities of Sevier. This effort led to a "manufacturing" process in which the two wheat varieties furnished the raw material and in which the processes consisted of making use of the forces of heredity. How a Cross is Made Ordinarily both the male and female elements of wheat come

394 IMPROVEMENT ERA A/„r„ 1929 from one plant. Such a crop is said to be self-fertilized. Because this condition prevails, the variety Dicklow, if kept pure from ad- mixtures, will breed true to itself. This is likewise true of the variety Sevier, as well as of other wheat varieties. Artificial fertilization is, therefore, necessary in order to cause a cross. A man who under- stands the operation takes with him a bucket, box or small stool on which to sit and goes into a grain field just after the wheat is well headed. He needs a single implement — a small pair of forceps, or tweezers as some people call them. If the wheat variety has beards, he will also be required to use a pair of small scissors which are useful but not necessary on a variety that has no beards. The worker examines a head of wheat in order to see that no fertilization has yet taken place. The Sevier wheat is bearded, and since that was used as the mother plant in the cross, the beards were clipped out of the way rather close down to the chaff. At the base of the head and at the top are some small spikelets (a group of chaff and flowers forming one section of a wheat head) which are clipped away because they mature at a different time from the ones at the middle of the head. With the forceps held carefully in one hand and the wheat head in the other, the worker gently slips the closed tips of the forceps between the two chaffs inclosing the flower, that is, where a kernel will later form. He finds inside of this floret, as it is then called, four parts. At the base is a tiny, tender club- shaped body bearing on the top a feather-like projection. This is the female part of the flower and is known as the pistil. Surrounding this are three green bodies supported on slender stems. These are the stamens and bear the male element of the flower. The three stamens are carefully removed, care being taken not to leave any of them, either whole or in fragments, and also not to injure the tender surrounding tissues. Since this operation is re- peated for all of the other florets on the head, no kernel of wheat would form if other treatment was not given. Nothing remains on this head of wheat except the female parts. The worker now goes to the other variety which he wishes to use in the cross and chooses a plant which is two or three days more advanced than is the mother plant. Examination with the forceps shows that the three green male bodies removed from the mother plant have now turned yellow. One of these is removed in the points of the forceps, and the worker, sitting close to the mother plant and protecting it with his body against any slight breeze, touches this yellow body on his thumb nail. If it is mature and ready for use a small cloud of yellow pollen is given out. The anther which holds the pollen is then thrust into one of the florets and touched gently on the feather-like projection of the pistil. These

Mar., 1929 UTAC. A NEW WHEAT 395 yellow, powder-like bodies of pollen are the male elements and are thus brought in contact with the female elements in the pistil. This process is repeated for each kernel of wheat that is to form in the head. The head of wheat is then carefully covered so as to prevent access of undesired pollen until fertilization has taken place. In a few days the cover is either loosened or removed, but a tag giving the history of the cross is left on the stalk just below the head. If natural conditions are favorable and if the operator is skillful, there will be kernels in most of the places where there should be, and these kernels will be crossed or hybrid kernels. At maturity the kernels are harvested carefully and those from one head are placed in a small envelope and properly labeled. This operation was per- formed in the year 1919 between the Dicklow and Sevier wheats. In 1920 each kernel was seeded by itself about one foot distant from other kernels. A single plant comes from each kernel. When spaced a foot apart, sometimes as many as 20 to 40 heads develop on each plant. These are allowed to develop without any artificial manipulation. When mature, all of the grain is harvested and once again placed in an envelope. In general appearance, the plant during the year just mentioned is somewhat like the one parent and somewhat like the other. During the next year, 1921 in this case, the kernels from the plants were seeded in rows with about 3 inches between kernels. Some 500 plants were so grown in 1922 from the cross of Sevier-Dicklow. This season some plants resembled one parent, some the other, with all sorts of combinations between the parents. At harvest time the grain I w> '■ii'iiiftiiiriiauL ' ' ,. •■ < . . :. * ,V,t 1 ". .' ' ■ % , \ v> .. . - \ ■vr - ■, ' ' ; : '^ - ';%v '' "' ' ( ;, ..ft* ■ \ Fig. 2. "Sevier" Wheat in Sevier County on Same Farm and Beside Field Shown in Fig. 1. This field yielded 50 Bushels an Acre.

396 IMPROVEMENT ERA Mar.. 1929 from each plant is again placed in small envelopes and given a number, a record of which is also kept in the pedigree record book. In 1922 this grain was again sown in such a fashion that the wheat from each plant of the year before constituted a short row of about 40 or 50 plants. During this year some of the rows bred true, that is, all of the 40 or 50 plants in that row were alike, but many of the rows still produced plants that differed from each other, that is, the row "segregated," as the plant breeder says. Individual plant selections were continued for one more year (1923), at which time about 350 grains, most of them different in some way, were obtained and all of which were now breeding true to whatever qualities they possessed. These were then (1924) put into a yield test to find which were the highest-yielding sorts. Mani- festly, 350 strains can be more readily handled when seeded in rows. Rows 17 feet long, three rows in a place for each sort with a similar planting three other places in the field, gives a reliable test. The next year (1925), poor ones are dropped out of the test and still more of them during the third year (1926). Some dozen or twenty now remain and there is enough grain to put in a grain drill and seed a small plat a few rods long and one drill width wide. Comparative yields are made in these plats, not only between the strains themselves but with the common varieties. These common varieties are known as "checks." One of the strains which had the pedigree number. F-68 proved to be superior in yield, in standing ability, and in other qualities. It was multiplied (1927) in an area of about 2/3 of an acre. There was then enough grain to seed on two farms in Cache Valley and two in Sevier Valley, for the 1928 crops. From these fields comparisons were obtained bearing out the experimental superi- ority of this new wheat which was given the name "Utac." There are two other qualities that are not yet known and can only be proved by time. It is not at all certain that this new wheat is fully winter hardy under unfavorable conditions. A series of crosses with some hardy parents is being brought through their segregating stages in order to have some strain that will be hardy to winter cold if "Utac" wheat proves not to be. It is not yet known that the milling quality of this variety will enable it to establish itself as a widely grown commercial sort. Every new wheat is ob- jected to at first. It will, therefore, be two or three years, or per- haps longer, before this can possibly be known. Such is the history of the manufacturing of a new variety. In this method lies great possibilities, not only in wheat but in other crops. By it a good quality in one sort can be added to the good qualities of another sort, but it is a slow, expensive, and rigorously scientific process.