DISCOVERY OF MARQUIS WHEAT 213 



as the Colbome District, and was represented as a munici- 

 pal unit in the Old House of Assembly of Upper Canada. 

 The Township of Otonabee was one of the first to be set- 

 tled, men going into its forests as early as 1816. So, when 

 the Fife family reached Canada and directed their steps 

 to Otonabee as their future home, settlers were already in 

 possession of farm lands and many locations had been 

 procured from the Crown. The Fife farm is situated 

 about seven miles from the city of Peterborough. 



" The late David Fife, the subject of this memoir, set- 

 tled in Otonabee in the early thirties of the last century. 

 For several years after that time, the wheat in general 

 sowing in the locality was a fall wheat of a brand known 

 as Siberian. This had come into favor largely owing to 

 the fact that those who sold it as seed claimed that it was 

 particularly fitted to survive the rigors of a Canadian win- 

 ter. However, Siberian was found to exhibit a weakness 

 in that it often became rusted badly with a consequent 

 diminution in the crop. Fife, being desirous of obtaining 

 improved seed, sent to Glasgow for samples. These were 

 forwarded, but arriving in Canada late in the season, were 

 held in storage at Smith's Creek on the lake front until the 

 following spring. Smith's Creek is now known as Port 

 Hope. The samples cost, in money as now we count it, 

 about three dollars per bushel and a considerable sum for 

 storage. The seed was sown but never sprouted.^^ 



" In 1841 Fife again became interested in importing 

 seed-wheat and wrote to a personal friend named Strothers 

 who was a clerk in a grain store in Glasgow, asking that 

 samples of a well-recommended Russian wheat be pro- 

 cured and forwarded. Mr. Strothers selected a new kind, 



89 According to Easen's letter the fall wheat germinated but did 

 not ripen. The earlier account written in 1861 is probably the 

 correct one. 



