DISCOVERY OF MARQUIS WHEAT 153 



differences. Dr. Saunders worked steadily through all 

 that material, studying head after head and selecting 

 out as many different and promising ones as he could find. 

 Each selected strain was then propagated in pure condi- 

 tion either from a single head or from two or more heads 

 of a single plant. In subsequent years, those strains 

 which proved unsatisfactory were rejected and destroyed, 

 with the result that to-day only a small fraction of the 

 strains originally selected remain in existence ; but this is 

 as it should be, for good experimental work in plant breed- 

 ing, by its very nature, always involves an extremely high 

 percentage of failures. In addition to selecting the best 

 strains from the cross-bred varieties. Dr. Saunders also re- 

 selected a considerable number of commercial wheats. All 

 this work which was carried out systematically year after 

 year in the faith that something of importance would 

 result from it, demanded much patience, care, and good 

 judgment. But the reward was great ; for, from among 

 the hundreds of strains investigated for their various quali- 

 ties, Marquis finally emerged ; and as in successive years 

 it proved its excellence, first in plot tests, then in fields 

 upon isolated farms, and finally upon vast stretches of 

 the sea-wide prairie-land in both Canada and the United 

 States, Dr. Saunders was given the satisfaction of real- 

 izing that his bright dream of one day helping the farm- 

 ers of the Golden West had at last come true. 



At first there were only a few grains of the precious 

 ^larquis, all obtained from a single head picked by Dr. 

 Charles E. Saunders in the summer of 1903 ; but how 

 great were their potentialities! These grains were 

 planted out in the spring of 1904 in a tiny plot in the 

 experimental garden. Soon they began to sprout, and at 

 length there was a small patch of green containing only 

 twelve plants in all. In August the little harvest was 



