DISCOVERY OF MARQUIS WHEAT 197 



qiiis by reason of the higher price paid for the higher 

 grade. Of course the higher grading of Marquis rela- 

 tively to the higher yield is but a small matter ; but sup- 

 posing 80,000,000 bushels of Marquis, on account of 

 higher grading, were to fetch on the average 3 cents per 

 bushel more than a similar quantity of Ked Fife, the gain 

 due to the more favorable grading would be $2,400,000, 

 a sum with a purchasing power by no means to be despised. 



XX. Resistance to Shelling 



Marquis does not shell, i. e., drop a certain proportion 

 of its grains just before it is cut like Bluestem, Red Fife, 

 Preston, and certain other kinds of wheat. But this ad- 

 vantage which has been especially noted in Xorth Dakota 

 upon the windy prairie and in some parts of Saskatchewan, 

 Alberta and Manitoba, brings with it a disadvantage, for 

 Marquis requires extra power in threshing. A thresher 

 must take care that his machine is accurately set, otherwise 

 much of the wheat may be lost as the straw is run through 

 into the straw stack. The loss due to shelling in Bluestem 

 in North Dakota often amounts to a bushel per acre and 

 possibly more in years of rapid ripening. In some years, 

 when Bluestem is harvested, the ground is littered with the 

 grains shattered out of their glumes by the wind and the 

 harvesting machinery. The amount of grain left upon 

 the ground, and therefore irrecoverable, not infrequently 

 appears to be equal to the amount originally used as seed.^ 

 Eed Fife does not shell so badly as Bluestem but, never- 

 theless, is far from equaling Marquis in the retention of 

 its grains. Eesistance to shelling by Marquis is undoubt- 

 edly one of the several factors which favor a high yield 

 from this variety of wheat. 



68 The facts concerning the shelling of Bluestem in North Dakota 

 were kindly supplied to me by Professor H. L. Bolley. 



