Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Substation No. 12, Home of Hybrid Sorghums
Chillicothe, Hardeman County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Forage crop field station at which in 1909 (when situated 6 miles NE) was planted the United States' first sudan grass, a sorghum especially adaptable to semiarid regions. The United States Department of Agriculture had brought the seed from Khartum, Africa. Here ensued more than a half-century of sorghum breeding under supervision of A. B. Conner, J. R. Quinby, J. C. Stephens and other scientists, culminating in hybrid seed for more productive crops that revolutionized the agriculture of the Great Plains. (1971)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On this forage-crop station in 1909, scientists planted the first Sudan grass grown in the United States — seed the Department of Agriculture had carried all the way from Khartoum. What followed was more than half a century of patient sorghum breeding under researchers like A. B. Conner, J. R. Quinby, and J. C. Stephens, culminating in hybrid seed that dramatically boosted yields. Their work reshaped farming across the semiarid Great Plains.
Why it matters
This quiet field station was a birthplace of the drought-hardy hybrid crops that made large-scale agriculture possible on the dry American plains.
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Related people
- · A. B. Conner
- · J. R. Quinby
- · J. C. Stephens
Themes & tags
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