Norin No.50

A very late variety, with a Norin number

"Tohoku No.50" was crossed in 1936 at the Konosu Testing Site of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Agricultural Experiment Station, taking "Ban No.33" as the mother and "Norin No.1" as the father; in 1938 the F3 seed was received by the Miyagi Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station as test material for the Ministry's designated paddy rice breeding trial, and it was selected and fixed there (from fiscal 1947 at the Ministry's Furukawa Agricultural Improvement Laboratory), its seed distributed to the relevant prefectures under the line name "Tohoku No.50" from 1945 to confirm regional suitability.

The cross was made in 1936 at Konosu. The mother is "Ban No.33" — ban meaning late, as the name says. The father is Paddy Rice Norin No.1, which is very early.

A very early father and a late mother. What came out was —

"Tohoku No.50" is a very late non-glutinous variety, ripening at about the same time as "Rikuu No.20"

Very late. It went to the mother.

The variety used to date its ripening is Rikuu No.20 — the mother of Rikuu No.132, and so Norin No.1's grandmother. A variety three generations back, still serving as the yardstick for maturity.

A short document

This historical document runs to 476 characters in all. The description of its character is this and no more.

Culm length and panicle length medium. Panicle number somewhat high. A disease-resistant, high-yielding line; this line is judged well suited to the flat districts of southern Miyagi Prefecture and the flat districts of Murayama, Okitama and Shonai in Yamagata Prefecture.

"A disease-resistant, high-yielding line," and it stops there. Resistant to blast? To bacterial leaf blight? Resistant to what is not written.

Tarehonami's document (Hokuriku No.60) runs to 3,139 characters, with a line of assessment for each disease.

Within one database, documents differ sixfold in thickness. Nor is it simply that older varieties have thinner records — Norin No.1's 1931 report writes out the method for measuring eating quality.

The density of the record changes with where and when it was written. Not trying to read too much out of a thin record is part of the work of handling sources.

Two prefectures, "giving consideration"

The prefectures giving consideration to adopting it as a recommended variety from fiscal 1949 are as follows. Yamagata Prefecture. Miyagi Prefecture.

"Giving consideration." It does not say they decided.