Report on the Agricultural Experiment Stations, 1950 Page: 31
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FRUIT AND NUT BREEDING RESEARCH 31
The value of grass-legume mixtures was shown by a study at
the Illinois station. Beef cattle grazed on orchard grass-Ladino
clover pasture, producing 4 tons of forage per acre, gained 258
pounds per acre, whereas cattle on a mixture of redtop, timothy,
bluegrass, and Ladino clover, producing 6 tons of forage per
acre, gained 560 pounds per acre.
Fertilization experiments at the Indiana station showed that
nitrogen fertilization on permanent grass pasture under good
management will produce as much beef per acre as the morm,
productive legume-grass mixtures.
Studies by the Kentucky station indicate that the total digestible
nutrients produced by an acre of Kentucky bluegrass-white
clover pasture in the central bluegrass region equals the TDN in
50 bushels of corn and 2.2 tons of alfalfa hay. Although yields
of TDN from such pastures varied from year to year, the annual
production did not fall below 75 percent of the average, indicating
that these pastures are more reliable producers of TDN than
most other crops.
Using a ryegrass-crimson clover pasture, the South Carolina
station found, in 1949, that grazing cows obtained 60 percent of
their required nutrients from the pasture and produced 21 percent
more milk than a barn-fed control group. After all costs
were deducted, a net profit of $77.73 per acre was realized. In
addition, the vitamin A potency of the milk produced by the
grazing cows averaged 177 percent higher than that produced
by the barn-fed group.
FRUIT AND NUT BREEDING RESEARCH
Fruit breeding research is now largely in the hands of research
horticulturists at State and departmental experiment stations.
Prior to the development of this cooperative research, the development
of new fruits came about largely through selections by
enthusiastic. fruit growers. That growers were reasonably successful
in thus getting new varieties established is shown in the
examples of the Concord grape, the Elberta peach, the McIntosh
apple. These are still tops among our horticultural varieties.
However, with the establishment of organized research, it was
quite natural that growers should depend more and more on the
technically trained personnel of experiment stations. Discovery
of the significance of Mendel's law shortly after the turn of the
century awakened great interest in the possibilities of fruit
breeding. Other scientific developments, such as use of colchicine
in doubling the number of chromosomes, have served to keep
active the new interest. Natural mutations such as color sports
and large-fruited forms have kept the fruit breeder alert. With
the full resources of their experiment station available, our modern-day
fruit breeders are annually contributing a most valuable
service to commercial fruit growers, farmers, and garden
orchardists.
In 1948 the horticultural division of the Minnesota station
reported a survey showing that a total of 787 horticultural
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United States. Office of Experiment Stations. Report on the Agricultural Experiment Stations, 1950, book, January 1951; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5992/m1/33/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.