DISCOVEEY OF MARQUIS WHEAT 215 



a part of which he disposed of at $3.00 per bushel, errone- 

 ously naming it Glasgow Wheat. The parent seed never 

 grew in Scotland but was imported from one of the Rus- 

 sian districts by ship. Efforts made to locate the terri- 

 tory from which the seed was derived were never success- 

 ful, and the origin of the new wheat was looked upon 

 as an accidental occurrence. From these small beginnings 

 came the wheat that has so largely contributed to the ag- 

 ricultural reputation of this section of Ontario, and which 

 has made the crops desirable to millers all over Canada." 



Such, then, are the traditions of Red Fife which have 

 come down to us. All of them doubtless contain some 

 truth, but to what extent certain of the more picturesque 

 details have been unconsciously invented it is at present 

 difficult or impossible to say. It may be that David Fife's 

 correspondence with his friend in Scotland and with his 

 neighbors is still in the possession of his descendants. If 

 it could be found it would doubtless throw a new and very 

 interesting light upon the history of the wheat with which 

 the family name of Fife is so honorably associated. 



In Ontario, about the year 1870, spring wheat formed 

 about 60 per cent, of the total crop, and the chief variety 

 of spring wheat grown was Red Fife.^^ Red Fife, after 

 its successful introduction in Ontario, soon passed into the 

 United States; and, as we have seen, an excellent crop 

 of it was raised by a Wisconsin farmer in 1860. With 

 the development of the wheat lands in the Great Plains 

 region, Red Fife was introduced into Minnesota and the 

 two Dakotas. 



but not from one. In the preceding paragraph a pint of seed is 

 said to have been realized from the three heads. This is another 

 impossibility. Possibly the original statement was " less than a 

 pint." 



92 Spring Wheat in Ontario, Manitoba Daily Free Press, March 16, 

 1883, p. 7. 



