HAYS, Willet Martin, American agricul turist and plant breeder: b. Hardin County, Iowa, 19 Oct. 1859. He received his academic education in-Oskaloosa College, after which he spent one year in Drake University. He grad uated from the Iowa State College of Agricul ture in 1885. He was made an assistant in Agriculture in the Iowa State College in 1886, and became associate editor of the Prairie Farmer, at Chicago, in 1N7. He then entered the service of the Agricultural College and Ex periment Station of the University of Minne sota, where he was engaged from 1888 to 1891, when he resigned to accept a position as pro fessor of agriculture and agriculturist of the experiment station at the North Dakota Agri cultural College. This position he left to accept a similar position at the University of Minne sota, which he held until the end of 1904, when he was appointed assistant secretary of Agri culture at Washington. During the course of his service with the Minnesota Agricultural Ex periment Station, he perfected and published methods of breeding and producing new va rieties of wheat, corn, flax, alfalfa and other field crops, which have been adopted and widely used by seed-breeding specialists in this coun try and abroad. He also produced and intro
duced several new and valuable varieties of wheat. He organized and served as the secretary of the Minnesota Field Crop Breeders' Association, and was the organizer and first secretary of the American Breeders' Association and was the editor of its annual report. He is the author of a number of books, including