N. P. Neal

Norman Percy Neal was a student at Lincoln from 1916–1919 and was awarded the Bledisloe Medal in 1954.

Normal Neal, a University of Wisconsin professor of agronomy and genetics, and an internationally recognised leader in hybrid corn development, retired from the University faculty in 1967 after nearly 40 years service.

Prof. Neal, a native of Blenheim, had been a leader in the Wisconsin Corn Improvement Project since 1931, and led the development of hybrid corn in Wisconsin. This effort served as a model for numerous other states and many foreign countries.

His work in hybrid corn production affected nearly every grain farmer in the state. When the Corn Improvement Project was started in 1924, production per acre was around 31 bushels per acre. When he retired farmers averaged 85 bushels of corn per acre.

All of this increase cannot be attributed solely to use of hybrid corn, but modern cultural practices would be much less effective without the development of modem hybrids.

Prof. Neal received B.Sc. degrees in both agronomy and biology at the Canterbury Agricultural College of the University of New Zealand. He served as a lecturer at Canterbury Agricultural College from 1921–26.

When Prof. Neal went to the University of Wisconsin to do graduate work in 1927, he had never seen a corn field. His major interests at that time were in pasture improvement, but the new idea of hybrid corn soon caught his fancy.

He became an assistant in agronomy in 1927, an instructor in 1929, and completed work on his doctorate in agronomy and genetics in 1935. Prof. Neal was appointed assistant professor in 1936, associate professor in 1941, and professor of agronomy and genetics in 1943.

During this time, Prof. Neal developed a reputation as one of the outstanding corn breeders of the United States. Hybrids he helped develop have been grown in northern sections of the United States, Canada and Europe. Inbred lines he developed produced hybrids that were early maturing, had stiffer stalks, higher yields and more stalk rot resistance than previous corn varieties.

In 1942, he was invited to Uruguay to make a study of the entire corn enterprise of that country. Other technical missions took him to France, and French North Africa (1952); Rumania, Austria and Switzerland (1958); and back to Rumania again in 1964 at the request of the Rumanian government.

He died in the United States at the age of 91.

The first award of the Medal to an Old Student in recognition of work carried out beyond New Zealand has been made to Norman P. Neal (16-19). In discussing the award with Viscount Bledisloe he expressed his desire that work carried on outside New Zealand be recognised provided the general terms of the award be satisfied, that is " . .. an Old Student of the College who, in the opinion of the

Board of Governors, has as a result of his training at the College materially assisted farming in New Zealand, or has otherwise advanced the country's interests.

Born and educated in Marlborough, N. P. Neal took the combined diploma and degree courses, his course being broken by a short service period towards the end of World War I. In 1921 he took the B.Agr. and B.Sc. degrees and then was on the College staff for two years, working with Dr. F. W. Hilgendorf on his pioneer wheat improvement programme. In 1924 he went to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, U.S.A. where he has remained since then. His academic and professional progress at Madison has featured Master of Science (1927), Ph.D. (1935), research assistant in genetics and agronomy (1928-31), instructor in genetics and agronomy (1932-36), assistant professor (1936-41), associate professor (1941-43), professor of agronomy and genetics (1943).

Over the years the development of hybrid corn strains has been his main work. The first release of material was made in 1935 and now hybrid corn of the Wisconsin strains are grown all over the world. The Wisconsin programme involves not only the breeding of adapted hybrids but also the production each year of foundation parental seed stocks needed by commercial seed growers. This work which Dr Neal now guides has to provide seed for two and a half million acres of hybrid corn in the State of Wisconsin alone, while in the United States some 90 million acres are now grown.

Beyond the U.S.A. Dr Neal's services have been placed at the disposal of South America and Europe in an advisory capacity. In 1943 he went as a special mission to the Government of Uruguay to advise in the establishment of a corn improvement programme. In 1952 he undertook work for the French Government and under the auspices of the Mutual Security administration of the U.S.A. he undertook technical missions to Morocco, Algeria, France.

For many years he has been active in. the influential American Society of Agronomy and is at present a member of the Budget and Finance Committee of that organisation. He is also a member of the Soil Science Society of America.