The "newer method" of corn breeding to which Wallace
referred was of course the hybridmethod, which at that point
he had been working on for about four years in the company he
founded in Grimes, Iowa, the Hi-Bred Corn Company. This eventually
turned into Pioneer Hybrid Seed Company, and we are fortunate
to have with us on this afternoon's panel William Ambrose, a
now retired geneticist with Pioneer who knew Henry A. Wallace.
Others were experimenting with hybrid corn in other states,
but Wallace has always been given prominence in discussions
of its development. An important player in promoting the adoption
of Pioneer's hybrid corn was Roswell Garst of Coon Rapids, Iowa;
Garst's biographer Harold Lee, who is also a member of the Grinnell
College Board of Trustees, is with us.
"American Dreamer," John Culver and John Hyde call
Wallace in their recent biography of him by that title. Wallace's
dreaming was not of the romantic, esoteric, or lotus-eater type.
Note that he used the word "practical" twice in the
passage I quoted, as well as "produce" and "producing,"
and "science" and "successful." In the area
of corn, at least, Wallace's dreams, though they may have seemed
fantastic to some, were built on his knowledge of plant genetics
and his convictions about what science could produce.
Those of you who heard Senator Culver's talk last night already
know that Henry A. was the third in a line of Henry Wallaces
in Iowa, all of whom had a strong interest in agriculture. Young
Henry took over from his GrFa the editorship of Wallaces' Farmer
magazine, one of the most widely read-and probably the most
intellectual-of the farm magazines published at that time. It
is still widely read and authoritative, and the current editor,
Frank Holdmeyer, is on this afternoon's panel. Wallace also
served for 8 years as President Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary
of Agriculture, in which capacity he established and implemented
a variety of important New Deal agricultural programs.
In 1930, Iowa corn production averaged 34 bushels/acre. The
annual average for the previous decade was about 40 bushels/acre.
Wallace set as a goal to better that by 25% through hybrid breeding.
The 1939 Iowa corn harvest did so, with an average of 52.2 bushels/acre.
But then the 1952 harvest averaged 62.5 bushels/acre. The 1962
harvest averaged 77 bushels/acre. The 1972 harvest averaged
116 bushels/acre. The 2000 harvest averaged 136.9 bushels/acre.
This represents a 400% increase in yield in 70 years, perhaps
unprecedented in the history of food production. The effects
on farming and farm families have been profound, and our final
panelist, Eugene Lang, who grew up on a farm near here in the
1920s and `30s and has been farming ever since, will talk to
us about this human dimension of Wallace's legacy.
After each of the panelists has spoken we will open up for general
discussion.
