DISCOVERY OF MARQUIS WHEAT 255 



Canada, according to the Hon. W. J. Hanna, formerly 

 Food Controller of the Dominion, is the most extravagant 

 consumer of wheat of all the countries of the world. The 

 consumption per capita for every man, woman, and child 

 for food purposes of all sorts, including the feeding of 

 animals, has been 9 bushels per annum.^^ It is therefore 

 clear that the addition to our wheat crop of from 16,000,- 

 000 to 25,000,000 bushels per annum, owing to the dis- 

 covery and introduction of Marquis, would provide all the 

 bread and other wheat requirements for an additional 

 population in Canada of upwards of 2,000,000 people. 



The price of wheat, as every one knows, has varied much 

 in the last ten years but, taking the value of wheat as only 

 70 cents a bushel, the wealth being added to western Can- 

 ada through the replacement of other wheats by Marquis 

 is from $11,200,000 to $17,500,000 per annum; ^^ and 

 just now, under war conditions, this sum must be multi- 

 plied by three.^^ Within a few decades, at this rate, Mar- 

 Marquis which, owing to its earliness in ripening and its high yield, 

 is more suited to conditions in western Canada than its predecessor, 

 has done much to encourage the breaking of new land on farms al- 

 ready established and also to increase the niunber of new farms by 

 stimulating the immigration of experienced farmers. This effect of 

 Marquis is imponderable and cannot be expressed in bushels or dollars 

 per annum; but if it could be, no doubt it would add considerably 

 to the statistical estimate of the value of Marquis to this country. 



36 The Canadian Food Bulletin, No. 9, Jan. 26, 1918, p. 2. An 

 endeavor is now being made to reduce the human consumption of 

 wheat to 5.4 bushels per capita per annum. 



37 The crop in western Canada for the year 1918 has been esti- 

 mated at 162,000,000 bushels, i.e., 71,000,000 bushels below the 

 average for the five previous years. The increment due to the re- 

 placement of Red Fife by Marquis has been only 13,000,000 bushels; 

 but, as the price of wheat now averages about $2.00 per bushel, this 

 mass of wheat is worth $26,000,000. In 1917 the increment was 

 upwards of 16,000,000 bushels valued at $32,000,000. 



38 The average price per bushel received by Canadian farmers for 

 the crops each year from 1910 onwards was as follows: 



