Show v Disease Resistant Disease Resistant Plants Pay Off But Take Time Developing food and fiber plant varieties that are resistant resistant resist resist- ant to disease pays handsome dividends in the tho form of bigger crop yields yields but but Its It's a time- time consuming process The National Cotton Council points out that one of the most ambitious projects along these lines Unes is underway In Missouri at the University's Delta center Researchers there are attempting at at- tempting to come como up with a variety of cotton that's resistant resistant resist resist- ant to not just one but four diseases Normally it takes from 10 to 12 years to produce a com coin commercial mercial plant variety from start IN rf e fW I to finish And that doesn't Include In elude clude one with added in built-in disease resistance As Cotton Breeder W. W P. P Sap Sap- Penfield explains When you add resistance nce for one disease it takes a couple of years longer All told he estimates it takes from Irom 15 to 20 years to develop multiple multiple disease disease resistant varieties vari vars from scratch And while commercial release release re reo re- re lease of 01 the new multiple multiple multiple-dis- dis disease ease resistant cottons may be some time off researchers say definite progress is being made If It and when the new variety becomes available cotton growers hope It will pay off oct aswell aswell as ns well as a new alfalfa variety is expected toUs to Its It's so pest resistant that scientists say it may increase the nations nation's leading forage crop by more than million an an- 1 t i. i a. a r 1 j malty Resistant to a fungus disease that gnaws away at 4 million acres of alfalfa in the Mid Mid- Atlantic Southeast and lower loer Midwest states the new y variety is also resistant to two insect species In tests conducted for lor the past two years it has consistently consistently yielded 12 2 tons more per acre than other varieties growing growing grow grow- ing alongside it Development of the new alfalfa alfalfa al al- falfa required studies by scientists scientists in five states on some plants Selections came from breeding programs started 40 years ago in Kansas and Ne Ne- braska The seed has been released by the USDA to commercial seed growers but will not be available for use on farms this year |