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Word: seedsmen (lookup in dictionary) (lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
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Usage:

...inbreeding he got pure strains which when mated yielded an almost explosive yield increase given the name of "hybrid vigor." But Shull's work was commercially valueless; the seed was too expensive. Not till 1935, after further discoveries by U.S. Department of Agriculture Researcher Donald Jones and commercial seedsmen, such as Henry A. Wallace, onetime (1933-40) U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, could commercial seed companies put hybrid corn on the market...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: AGRICULTURE: The Pushbutton Cornucopia | 3/9/1959 | See Source »

...easily be hand pollinated. Most other crops have their male and female parts close together. The long-sought key to separation of the sexes in order to hybridize other commercial crops came accidentally with the discovery of patches of sorghum that had hereditary male sterility. From this seedsmen developed a hybrid. This year the U.S. is planting 8,000,000 acres to hybrid sorghum for feed-half the entire sorghum crop-although the hybrid is only five years old. This started hybridizers hunting for other genetic freaks with hereditary male sterility. Researcher Frank Eaton of die U.S. Agriculture Department, working...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: AGRICULTURE: The Pushbutton Cornucopia | 3/9/1959 | See Source »

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