Marquis wheat: King Wheat is 100 years old
By Bill Scowcroft
In August 1903, Charles Saunders selected a single head of wheat from a sea of plots at the Central Experimental Station in Ottawa-and made history.
Among the many wheat selections that summer, Saunders' selection would become the fountainhead of the Canadian grain industry.
Charles Saunders, PhD, had inherited an array of breeding material from his father, William Saunders, the first director of the Dominion Experimental Farms.
The Saunders' name was already established in experimental plant breeding. Charles, along with his brother Arthur, had helped his father make many wheat crosses. Working together in the early 1890s, they sought to combine early maturing varieties with the then-premium variety Red Fife, prized for its milling and baking characteristics.
The variety Red Fife was a selection made by Ontarian farmer David Fife, from seed he received in 1842 from Galicia, a former province of Austria.
The milling quality of Red Fife was superior. But the variety was late maturing, and frosts in late spring frequently ruined crops on the Prairies. Early maturing varieties, imported to Canada, were available, but their milling quality was dreadful.
The goal was clear: to find an early maturing variety with good quality.
The single head selected by Saunders in 1903 was a sixth or seventh generation derivative of a cross between Red Fife and an early maturing variety from India named Hard Red Calcutta.
Seed from this cross yielded 12 plants. These plants, and their progeny, matured six or seven days earlier than existing varieties. Chew tests yielded rubbery, elastic dough with good color signifying superior baking quality.
Saunders' selection had jointly captured early maturity and quality in the same line!
Saunders christened his wheat Marquis - a noble name in keeping with his title of Dominion Cerealist. Subsequent trials not only confirmed that the variety was early maturing and had good quality, but that it yielded 20-40 percent more than Red Fife.
Released in 1909, Marquis rapidly dominated Canadian production and soon spread into the mid-western United States. World markets recognized its quality. Wheat became the economic driver of the Prairies. Canadian wheat production increased from 2.5 million tons in 1905 to 5.5 million tons in 1913. In 1915, a bumper crop year, 80 percent of the 9.8 million tons harvested was Marquis.
Quality, early maturity and yield-truly a royal combination.
The Royal Canadian Mint struck a $100 gold coin this year to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Marquis wheat and its contribution to Canadian development.
Bill Scowcroft, PhD, is director of the Grain Research Laboratory of the Canadian Grain Commission in Winnipeg. The CGC is the federal agency responsible for establishing and maintaining Canada's grain quality assurance system.
Contact:
Louise Worster
Telephone: (204) 983-2748
Email:
lworster@grainscanada.gc.ca
Last updated: 2003-07-17