Glenn Burton: Grass Breeder, Innovator, and Public Servant.

Glenn Burton began his grass breeding research in 1936 at the Georgia Coastal Plains Experiment Station in Tifton, GA. He was employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the Agricultural Research Service. His research objective was the improvement of forage grasses, beginning with the grass nursery at the Experiment Station, 205 representatives of 43 genera. Coastal Bermuda (Cynodon dactylon var. dactylon) was the most successful pasture grass he developed in his early breeding research. It was a hybrid between Tift, a common bermuda selected from a local cotton field, and a tall bermuda introduction from South Africa. Coastal had two strikes against it. In southern Georgia, bermuda grass was considered a pest, and Coastal produced few viable seeds and could only be propagated vegetatively. Undeterred by this, Burton worked with an animal husbandman to show Coastal’s superior productivity both for hay and pasture cattle feeding. He developed planting methods for pasture establishment with grass sprigs and best agronomic practices for pasture management. He provided grass sprigs and information to farmers with no financial charge. Because his research was publicly funded, he believed the materials developed in his program should be freely available for use by the public. He adhered to this even in later years as patenting became common in public breeding programs. Burton’s forage research included work with several other species, notably bahiagrass (Paspalum notaum) and cattail millet (Pennisetum glaucum). Burton always considered himself to be a public servant and believed that plant breeding could help provide food security, particularly in less developed countries. To that end, he provided his improved forage millet germplasm for food millet breeding in India and Africa. Burton also developed a productive turf grass breeding program that produced several bermuda grasses that have been widely used for golf course fairways and greens.