Willet M. Hays, Great Benefactor to Plant Breeding and the Founder of Our Association

Abstract

Willet M. Hays was a great benefactor to plant breeding and the founder of the American Genetic Association (AGA). We commemorate the AGA's centennial. We mined university archives, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) yearbooks, plant breeding textbooks, scientific periodicals, and descendants for information. Willet Hays first recognized the individual plant as the unit of selection and started systematic pure-line selection and progeny tests in 1888. He developed useful plant breeding methods. He selected superior flax (Linum usitatissimum L.), wheat (Triticum vulgare L.), corn (Zea mays L.), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), and oat (Avena sativa L.) varieties, and discovered Grimm alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.); all became commercially important. He initiated branch stations for better performance testing. Willet Hays befriended colleagues in other universities, in federal stations, in a London conference, and in Europe. He gathered and spread the scientific plant breeding gospel. He also improved rural roads and initiated animal breeding records and agricultural economics records. He started the AGA in 1903, serving as secretary for 10 years. He became assistant secretary of agriculture in 1904. He introduced the project system for agricultural research. He authored or coauthored the Nelson Amendment, the Smith-Lever Act, the Smith-Hughes Act, and the protocol leading to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization-all involved teaching agricultural practices that improved the world.

Background of U.S. Hybrid Corn II

“…Scientific plant breeding began a century ago with recognition of the individual plant as the unit of selection and use of the progeny test (Hays, 1903; Troyer, 2003). The pedigree method (Hayes and Johnson, 1939) selects individual plants of known pedigree for desirable traits from two or more entities into one inbred.…”

Minnesota Corn Breeding History: Department of Agronomy & Plant Genetics Centennial

“…Another signifi cant Minn13 descendent contributing to today's corn germplasm is HFM's LH82, which contains Minn13 derived from W153R from HFM's 610. Table 3 shows the contribution of Minn13, and Minn13 descendents Oh43, PH207, and A632 1984to 2008in 5-yr increments: 1984to 1988(90 registered corn inbreds), 1989(184), 1994to 1998(287), 1999to 2003(266), and 2004to 2008. These descendents of Minn13 facilitate Minn13's contribution within PEIs (PH207), Oh43s, and B14s (A632).…”

“…Dry these ears, record the weight of each, and record the nitrogen percent (protein) of the few that weigh best." Professor Hays developed multiple cultivars listed in the 1936 USDA Yearbook of Agriculture (Bressman, 1936;Troyer and Stoehr, 2003). Several became valuable commercially including: Primost (Minnesota 25) fl ax (Linum usitatissimum L.) that was the fi rst pure-line fl ax variety developed in the United States; widely grown Minnesota 13 corn cultivar (Minn13); Minnesota 169 Bluestem wheat (Triticum vulgare L.) that increased Minnesota wheat yield 18%; Minnesota 105 barley (Hordeum vulgare L.); Minnesota 281 and 295 oat (Avena sativa L.) varieties; and dry beans (Vicia faba L.) (Stanton, 1936).…”

Background and Importance of ‘Minnesota 13’ Corn

“…During the 1890s, the Crookston (northwest) and Grand Rapids (north central) Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Branch Stations were established to provide better testing to recommend crops and crop cultivars for northern Minnesota (Anonymous, 1896;Troyer and Stoehr, 2003). 1) (Troyer and Stoehr, 2003). Willet Hays was born (19 Oct. 1859) and raised on a central Iowa farm near Eldora (Fig.…”