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Show SMUT RESISTANT WHEAT RELEASED Wasatch, New Variety Developed at USAC A new winter wheat variety, Wasatch, which undoubtedly will , become very popular with dry land farmers in the intermoun-tain intermoun-tain area because of its resistance to dwarf smut and bunt diseases diseas-es while maintaining a high yield, 1 was released officially to Utah 1 growers Thursday by the Utah I Agricultural Experiment station, j Dr. R. H. Walker, station di-i di-i rector, announced the new varie-jty varie-jty at a cinference of representa-; representa-; tives of the experiment station, the Utah Crop Improvement association, as-sociation, the U. S. division of I cereal crops and diseases, and I milling interests in the state. I The new wheat was developed ! through the plant breeding de. Ipartment of the experiment station sta-tion and is a hard, red winter wheat of the Turkey red type. It is a cross between the varieties varie-ties of Ridit and Relief, Dr. Walker said. "The wheat is the most highly resistant of any commercially grown wheat in this area to dwarf smut and bunt diseases and in addition it also is resistant to all but two of the 27 known smut races," he said. "These two varieties of smut are not common com-mon in this area.'' Explaining the development of the new variety, Dr. Walker said "prior to the development of the smut-resistant variety Relief, Utah Kanred was the most widely grown wheat on dry land areas of the state. It was an excellent variety, yielded well and had good milling and baking qualities. "Unfortunately however," he continued, "it is not resistant to the smut diseases and the annual average loss was about 30 to 40 per cent over the entire- d.y land producing area. Many fields ran as high as 85 to 90 per cent." Dr. Walker pointed out that dwarf smut is caused by a fungus fun-gus organism living in the soil and the only known method of control is by growing resistant varieties. "Several years ago the expert, ment station, in cooperation with the U. S. department of agriculture agricul-ture bureau of plant industry, initiated in-itiated a plant breeding program to develop new smut-resistant wheat variety," he continued. "The first improved variety was Relief, now estimated to be grown on at (Continued on page Eight) Wheat Released (Continued from page One) least 80 per cent of Utah's dryland dry-land wheat areas and 40 per cent of southern Idaho's acreage." Encouraged by their success, the experimenters produced a second se-cond variety known as Cache, similar to relief but a beardless variety. It has been grown to a limited extent in this state since its recent release, he said. The new variety, Wasatch, which is now being released, is a further development of the plant breeding work. "Its yielding quality in years when there is no smut probably would be no better than -Utah Kanred or Relief, but in years when smut is abundant, this variety undoubtedly will out-yield." out-yield." He announced that several growers in Box Elder and Cache counties have grown a small acreage this year for seed increase in-crease purposes. Approximately 200 acres were planted and will be harvested next month. After certification, seed will be available avail-able through county agricultural agents or the Utah Crop improvement im-provement association, Dr. Walker Walk-er said. |