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numbers, and ever since then the demand has been very great. It 

 was quite impossible for some years to meet the request for this 

 variety. Many farmers expressed themselves willing to pay any 

 price for a few bushels of the wheat. The highest specific offer made 

 was $50 for ten bushels, but large quantities have changed hands 

 at $3 and $4 per bushel. On account of its surpassing excellence 

 Marquis wheat is rapidly replacing all the older early maturing 

 varieties, especially in Saskatchewan, and is to a large extent supplant- 

 ing Red Fife also. 



Perhaps the most noteworthy triumph of Marquis wheat was the 

 winning of the prize of one thousand dollars at the Land Exhibition 

 in New York City, in the Fall of 1911, for the best 100 Ibs. of wheat 

 grown on the continent of North America. The winning grain was 

 grown by Mr. Seager Wheeler of Rosthern, Sask., from seed supplied 

 by the Experimental Farms. This success is especially noteworthy in- 

 asmuch as the year 1911 was one of the most unfavourable seasons 

 known in Saskatchewan in a wheat-growing period of over 30 

 years; and the Rosthern district has sometimes been regarded as 

 unsuitable for the production of wheat of the highest quality. 



At the Dry-Farming Congress, held at Lethbridge, in October, 

 1912, Marquis wheat again demonstrated its superior quality. In 

 competition with wheat grown in any part of the world, a bushel 

 of this variety won the championship prize of a farm engine valued 

 at $2,500. The winning wheat was grown on irrigated land by Mr. H. 

 Holmes, of Raymond, Alberta. 



Red Fife being the standard high grade wheat in Canada, has 

 been used to a large extent for crossing to produce new varieties. 

 In addition, an effort has been made by applying the best methods 

 of selection to secure improved strains from it. In this way there 

 have been obtained two important types, Red Fife H. and Early Red 

 Fife. Red Fife H. is very slightly earlier than the ordinary Red Fife, 

 perhaps from one to four days on an average, and baking tests have 

 shown it to be absolutely of the highest standard. Early Red Fife 

 shows greater earliness (about five to ten days). It has been baked 

 several times and has proved to be the same as ordinary Red Fife in 

 baking strength as well as in most other respects. Its earliness is, 

 however, a distinct advantage. Unfortunately it has shown a greater 

 susceptibility to rust in most (but not all) districts in the Prairie 

 Provinces and its cultivation there is not now advocated. Marquis 

 has proved distinctly superior. In eastern Canada, however, Early 

 Red Fife succeeds very well and seems likely to prove a valuable 

 acquisition, superior perhaps to its great rival. 



This work has been done more especially to meet the needs of 

 the Northwest, for earlier maturing varieties. Although good success 



