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The Food Issue
2017
grainswest.com25
quicker-maturing wheat crop became more pronounced when
wheat production spread further north and northern farmers
had even more trouble growing Red Fife due to a shortened
growing season—up to 15 days shorter in some cases,
compared to southern farms. In this case, the English proverb,
“necessity is the mother of invention” proved to be apt.
A man named William Saunders was put in charge of the
country’s brand-new experimental farms, where research
would be conducted to find Red Fife’s successor as the
premier Canadian wheat variety. Saunders was Canada’s first
appointed dominion cerealist. One of his duties was to create a
wheat variety that had all the positive traits of Red Fife, namely
milling quality and yield, but with a shorter maturity period to
escape killing frosts. He sent his son, A.P. “Percy” Saunders,
to create crosses at the three Prairie experimental farms, and
the young Saunders did not disappoint. The ubiquitous Red
Fife was paired with Hard Red Calcutta, a wheat variety from
India lauded for its early maturity (six days faster than Red Fife).
By crossbreeding the two varieties in 1892, Percy unknowingly
wrote the next chapter in Canadian agricultural history, but
it would take more than a decade for anyone to realize the
magnitude of his success.
ORAL HISTORY
Percy’s brother Charles was, by all accounts, a black sheep
not the least bit intrigued by agriculture. Born the year of
Confederation, Charles was gifted with an ear for music and
had grand ambitions to be a flutist like no other. His father,
however, had other ideas for his son. At William’s insistence,
Charles begrudgingly studied science and eventually moved
to Baltimore where he earned a PhD in chemistry from John
Hopkins University in 1891. Upon graduation, Charles still
had precious little interest in chemistry. He and his mezzo-
soprano wife, Mary Blackwell, ran concert and recital studios
in Toronto, taught music lessons and regularly contributed a
music column to
The Week
magazine. City living was good
for Charles.
However, William, a close friend of then-Prime Minister
Wilfrid Laurier, simply wouldn’t let his son continue in the
arts. In 1902, much to Charles’ shock and dismay, his father
sent him a letter informing him that he had been appointed
a dominion cerealist at Ottawa’s Central Experimental Farm.
Not wanting to incur any more of his father’s wrath, Charles
mournfully moved from Toronto to Ottawa to begin what
surely must have felt like exile.
Upon arrival in 1903, Charles was faced with the unenviable
task of sifting through genetic wheat crosses created at various
experimental farms in the hopes of identifying one to replace
Red Fife. Eventually, he dusted off a sample from a name
he recognized: A.P. Saunders, his brother. The sample was
labelled “Markham,” which Charles later renamed “Marquis.”
Perhaps it was nepotism, perhaps not; either way, Charles took
a closer look at the sample.
Photo:CharlesMilne
Sir Charles Saunders, the man that is synonomous with theMarquis wheat variety.
A painted portrait of David Fife, the man who planted the iconic Red Fife wheat 25
years prior to Canada's Confederation.