Balancing seed options: southern growers have a wish list of traits they want from their varieties

摘要

I learned a long time ago, you can't get all your coons up the same tree" says Marion Hawkins, president of Gold Leaf Seed Co. "That is an old adage of the plant breeder." Gold Leaf Seed sells tobacco varieties but Hawkins has worked 30 years, not only with tobacco, but also with corn, wheat, oats and soybeans varieties. In those 30 years, he's learned to take his own slant on things. Of course, any self-respectin' adage involving coons and dogs should have a good story to go with it. This one goesthat some raccoon hunters went out hunting one night. One of them, an old fellow with a good set of dogs, treed a coon up a sapling.