b'MOST FAMOUSPLANT BREEDERSLUTHER BURBANK (18491926)U.S. PLANT BREEDER Burbank was reared on a farm and received little more than a high school education. He was very interested in the works of Charles Darwin. At a young age he started a lifelong plant-breeding career. One of his earliest achievements is the Burbank potato variety. The later variety Russet Burbank is a mutation (or sport) of the cultivar Burbank.He sold the rights to the potato for $150 and used that as travel fare to California, where he settled in Santa Rosa and established a nursery garden, a greenhouse, and experimental farms that were to become famous throughout the world. LOUIS DE VILMORIN (1816-1860) Often in his breeding, he made multiple crosses of foreign and native germplasm. He FRENCH PLANT BREEDER also produced seedlings which were subsequently grafted onto fully developed plants Vilmorin was founded as a plant andto allow for a relatively quick appraisal of the hybrid characteristics. He had a talent seed boutique in 1743 by seed expertfor keen observation and often immediately recognized desirable characteristics. This Claude Geoffroy and her husband Pierreallowed Burbank to quickly select useful new varieties. Andrieux, the chief seed supplier andBurbank developed more than 800 new strains and varieties of plants, including 113 botanist to King Louis XV. In 1774, theirvarieties of plums, 20 of which are still commercially important, 10 commercial varieties daughter married botany enthusiastof berries, and more than 50 varieties of lilies.Philippe-Victoire Levque de Vilmorin (1746-1804). Together, they created theFERDINAND VON LOCHOW (1849 - 1924)GERMAN PLANT BREEDERcompany Vilmorin-Andrieux.With the drive to make the family-owned The Vilmorin company produced theagricultural manor in Petkus more profit-first seed catalogue for farmers and aca- able, he devoted his entire life to increasing demics. In the long history of the Vilmorinyields on the poor soils of the estate. After family, the most prominent scientificinitial agricultural cultivation experiments, figure was certainly Louis de Vilmorin. Hehe decided to start systematic breeding of formulated a small number of articles onrye in 1881. While other breeders at that time plant breeding and a major part of theselected mainly for individual traits such as companys success can be traced to thelarge grains, Lochows standard for selecting crucial work on selection and hereditygood individual plants was a combination of carried out by him in the 1850s. In 1856,various traits such as winter hardiness, a full he published Note on the Creation of aspike and uniformly large and round grains. New Race of Beetroot and ConsiderationsThe Petkus winter rye bred in this way on Heredity in Plants, establishing thealready showed a remarkable superiority theoretical groundwork for the modernin yield of up to 11% compared to the refer-seed-breeding industry. ence varieties in the variety trials started in 1891. The resulting increase in demand for From the middle of the 19th century,Lochows varieties could only be achieved with the help of selected farmers who were this family-owned company was amonghired for seed multiplication. In addition to rye, he also cultivated potatoes, oats and the most important seed companies inflax, and later even lucerne, maize and pine.the world, particularly for cereals. DECEMBER 2022SEEDWORLD.COM /41'