Seeds of gold
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| George Sprague, one of the fathers of modern maize breeding. |
It is often said that the development of hybrid corn may be one of this country's greatest achievements. One corn breeder, George F. Sprague, put Iowa on the map.
Sprague ran the Iowa State University-USDA corn breeding program from 1939 to 1958 and developed a unique population of corn that would forever change corn agriculture. The corn is Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic (BSSS). Historically, it has been used to develop U.S. commercial corn hybrids and today it is still one of the main gene pools for U.S. corn hybrids.
Prior to Sprague's time at Iowa State, Merrill Jenkins, who ran the maize breeding program from 1922 to 1934, recognized a problem in corn: lack of strength in the corn stalk. Back then, the corn didn't stand at attention like the rows of tall upright corn we see today. If corn could stand straight up no matter what, be it rain or snow, yields could be higher (corn on the ground could be missed or damaged during harvest). Jenkins also originated the idea that a population of corn with a lot of variability would be a strong base from which to breed for various purposes.
Sprague's Stiff Stalk did all these things. And it turned out to be the beginnings of legendary B lines from Iowa-inbred lines of corn that delivered high yields, strong roots and stalks, and were disease and insect resistant. United States corn yields have quadrupled since 1930; approximately 60 percent of that increase came on the coattails of the B lines. Almost half of today's U.S. corn hybrids can be traced back to the B lines.
Sprague had good foresight of how the corn industry would develop -- he knew the commercial industry would play a prominent role. He also believed in merging the basic research with application. He worked closely with Raymond F. Baker, plant breeder at Pioneer Hi-Bred International. Baker had been a student of Jenkins. Like others, the first hybrids Pioneer produced in the early 1930s had a strong influence from Iowa State.
Recurrent selection, recycling the best of the crop from each cycle over and over, was how Sprague developed such great corn lines. The improvement is incremental from year to year, cycle to cycle. And he released the lines he developed freely. He never patented or assumed ownership of them.
Arnel Hallauer, Sprague's successor at Iowa State said, "He was the most non-territorial sort of fellow you'd want to meet. He was so outstanding himself, he didn't have to worry about it. Everybody knew the contributions he made were great."
George F. Sprague spent his life and career breeding corn. He was known to have high standards and to be diligent in his work. During his 47 years at the USDA and 20 at the University of Illinois, he published throughout. While at Iowa State he had 32 graduate students. From May to November he could often be found wearing his work clothes, out in the corn fields.
