When California rice growers established objectives for the research they have helped support for seven years, they expressed need for varieties with short stature for greater lodging resistance, early maturity (to facilitate harvest before fall rains), and glabrous or smooth hulls to reduce dust during harvesting and drying. We have taken a series of steps toward incorporating these features into Calrosc, a high yielding variety with good cold tolerance and good milling and cooking qualities. Advantages of this procedure are that new desirable features are added step-by-step with minimal danger of losing past achievements.