112 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
was obtained, informed me that the variety was procured by them 
many years ago from a farmer in Galicia. It seems, therefore, quite 
clear that the kernel of wheat which came into the hands of Mr. Fife 
was a kernel of this Galician spring wheat, accidentally present in the 
cargo of winter wheat from Dantzig, of which he obtained a portion. 
It is interesting to be able to throw this light on the subject of the 
origin of Red Fife, which has hitherto seemed very dark. There is no 
doubt that this variety is still grown in Europe, and so far as our tests 
have gone, it seems to be of the same quality there as it is here.”’ 
And what of Marquis wheat? It is an offspring of Red Fife, 
having this old and trusty variety as its father and Hard Red Calcutta 
as its mother. Its story was told in the Annual Report of the 
Canadian Experimental Farms for 1913, pp. 118, 119. 
‘All the details in regard to the origin of Marquis are not avail- 
able, but it is one of the descendants of a cross between an early- 
ripening Indian wheat, Hard Red Calcutta (as female) and Red Fife 
(as male). The cross, as appears from unpublished notes, was made 
by Dr. A. P. Saunders, probably at the Experimental Farm at Agassiz, 
in the year 1892. The cross-bred seeds, or their progeny, were trans- 
ferred to Ottawa, and the writer of this report was appointed in 1903 to 
take charge of the work of cereal breeding. He made a series of 
selections from the progeny of all the cross-bred wheats which had been 
produced at Ottawa up to that time. Some of these had been named > 
and others were under numbers. Though they had all been subjected 
to a certain amount of selection, each of them consisted of a mixture of 
related types. In some cases all the types present were similar. In 
other instances striking differences were observed. The grain which 
had descended from the cross referred to above was found by careful 
study of individual plants (especially by applying the chewing test to 
ascertain the gluten strength and probable bread-making value) to 
be a mixture of similar-looking varieties which differed radically in 
regard to gluten quality. One of the varieties isolated from this mix- 
ture was subsequently named Marquis. Its high bread-making 
strength and color of flour were demonstrated in the tests made at 
Ottawa in the early months of 1907, and all the surplus seed was at 
once sent to Indian Head Experimental Farm for propagation.” 
FIRST SHIPMENT OF WESTERN WHEAT 
The records of the first shipments of Manitoba wheat to the 
East are worth preserving and, therefore, I append the following 
statement based on information mainly taken from The Winnipeg 
Free Press of October 23rd, 1876. 
