November 13, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



70f. 



merest outline, but the annual reports and 

 bulletins of that institution and his papers 

 before learned societies give ample evidence 

 of his active life in agricultural research. 

 We can only refer here, and that briefly, to 

 the results of his work with fruits and cereals. 



In gooseberries he produced the Pearl and 

 Eed Jacket, both well and favorably known. 

 With black currants he made many crosses 

 and his Eclipse, Magnus Clipper, Climax, 

 Success and Beauty have all established repu- 

 tations. He crossed the red raspberry with 

 the black cap, but the resulting varieties though 

 of excellent quality and good bearers were not 

 generally acceptable to the fruit trade by 

 reason of their dark color. The " Sarah," 

 however, has proved an excellent variety for 

 home use, being valuable on account of its late 

 fruiting. Early varieties of the red currant 

 of Dr. Saunders's production are the Brighton 

 and Count, both hardy, prolific and good 

 yielders. In grapes, his Emerald, a white 

 grape of fine quality, may be mentioned; it 

 was held to be the best grape of the Canadian 

 varieties exhibited at the Colonial Exhibition 

 in London in 1886. 



In ornamental plants he did excellent work, 

 originating two fine and valuable roses, the 

 Mary Arnott and the Agnes. Among the bar- 

 berries also he left as a legacy several very 

 interesting and highly ornamental hybrids. 



His efforts and their results in hybridizing 

 with apples are well known to the horticultural 

 world. He set himself the diificult task of 

 producing an apple that would be sufficiently 

 hardy to withstand the rigor of the winter in 

 our northwestern provinces. Many pages 

 might be filled with an account of his labors 

 in this direction. They were begun in 1894, 

 using as the female parent the exceedingly 

 hardy and exceedingly small wild Siberian 

 crab, Pyrus taccata, and as the male parents 

 a large number of hardy Eussian and Ameri- 

 can apples. From these crosses he obtained 

 his first fruit in 1899, and from among the 

 bearing trees he found some that would justify 

 their propagation. About 800 trees were set 

 out and many of them have proved hardy and 

 have fruited abundantly on the open prairie. 



Their fruit showed a very considerable increase 

 in size, as compared with that of the mother 

 parent, some of them having a diameter of 

 one and three quarters inches. Among these 

 first crosses stand out the Jewel, Sylvia, 

 Prince, Tony, Elsa and Charles. Fruit of 

 these has been produced at Fort Vermilion, 

 in latitude 58°, where the winter temperature 

 may fall as low as 60° below zero Fahrenheit. 



From this initial work Dr. Saunders pushed 

 forward, seeking apples of larger size and better 

 quality. Taking the larger, he recrossed these 

 hybrids with several hardy apples of well- 

 known varieties and produced a number of 

 still greater promise. Of these second crosses 

 he planted about 400 trees, some of which have 

 borne fruit two and a half inches in diameter 

 and of good quality. These are now under 

 test on the prairie farms and it is confidently 

 expected that many of them will prove of 

 value where apples can not at present be suc- 

 cessfully grovm. 



In his work with cereals — a work which has 

 proved of paramount importance and value to 

 Canada — ^Dr. Saunders's endeavor was to pro- 

 duce an early ripening wheat of good quality, 

 that might serve for districts in the Canadian 

 northwest where the Red Fife, our standard 

 variety, was in some seasons injured by early 

 autumnal frosts. The story of this wheat 

 breeding is a long and interesting one, cover- 

 ing many years of patient, skilful work. 

 Many hundreds of hybrids have been produced 

 and tested at the Central Farm. Hundreds 

 have been discarded in the course of this in- 

 vestigation and hundreds were tried out for 

 prolificness, earliness and bread-making qual- 

 ities. Of this large number a few, perhaps a 

 dozen, have been found worthy of introduc- 

 tion, and these, all crosses from the standard 

 varieties, Red Fife and White Fife, are now 

 well known and widely cultivated. Some men- 

 tion must be made of the more important of 

 these new wheats, which are all vigorous, 

 productive and early in ripening. Preston 

 and Huron are bearded, the equal of Red Fife 

 in hardness and color. Stanley is a beard- 

 less wheat and in some respects from the com- 

 mercial point of view perhaps somewhat infe- 



