DISCOVERY OF MARQUIS WHEAT 211 



send for the seed. An acquaintance, strolling along the 

 dock at Glasgow, found men unloading wheat. He knew 

 that Fife had emigrated to Canada, and he also knew of 

 a mutual friend who proposed to go out to the new coun- 

 try presently. The thought struck him to take a sample 

 of the wheat which to his observation looked very good, 

 and send it to Fife. He had nothing in which to hold 

 the wheat, but there was a hole in the lining of his cap. 

 I He opened the lining at the hole, filled in a handful, and 

 'afterwards wrapped it up in paper. Fife received the 

 seed and planted it. It all grew but rusted badly, except 

 five heads, all from one stalk or root. Two of these heads 

 were eaten by oxen leaving only three heads. The great 

 probability is that the single grain from which the three 

 heads grew was an accidental hybrid." ^^ 



The incident about the oxen has been connected with 

 David Fife's wife and in this form is told as follows: 

 " Mrs. Fife is entitled to share in her husband's honor, 

 for, discovering the family cow contentedly making a meal 

 of the growing clump of grain, she was in time to rescue a 

 portion of it before it was too late." ^ It may be added 

 that a photograph of Mr. and Mrs. Fife was taken when 

 they were very advanced in years and was reproduced in 

 several newspapers. 



Another tradition ^"^ introduces a sack : David Fife 

 " having by experiment found that the Scotch Danzig 

 wheat was a spring and not a winter variety, the sack in 

 which the wheat had been contained was looked up and a 



85 This tradition was told to Mr. F. H. Dobbin of Peterborough, 

 who kindly wrote it down and sent it to me in August, 1918. Mr. 

 Dobbin, in his letter to the author stated that he was assured by 

 one who knew all the circumstances that this tradition is the cor- 

 rect one as opposed to another about to be related. 



86 C. C. James, Canadian Wheat History, Grain Growers' Guide, 

 June 7, 1916, p. 36. 



87 Ibid. 



