T02 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1037 



rior to the foregoing varieties. Of somewhat 

 different parentage is the next to be referred 

 to and the best of them all — the Marquis — 

 derived by crossing the Eed Fife with the 

 Hard Eed Calcutta. Marquis, that practically 

 from its first introduction, leaped into popu- 

 larity and stands to-day as the equal of Eed 

 Fife in bread-making qualities and Tastly 

 superior to it as regards earliness in ripening. 

 The selection of this splendid vcheat, from a 

 number of unfixed but closely related types, 

 is the outcome of much painstaking and care- 

 ful work on the part of Dr. Saunders's third 

 son, Dr. Charles E. Saunders, who as Dominion 

 Cerealist at Ottowa, took up this phase of 

 his father's work in 1903. The Marquis has 

 more than fulfilled the most sanguine expec- 

 tations, and farmers and millers alike speak 

 most enthusiastically of its many fine qual- 

 ities and its extreme earliness. It has given 

 excellent yields in Manitoba, Saskatchewan 

 and Alberta, but not only is it a heavy cropper, 

 but its grain is heavy and of excellent ap- 

 pearance, practically undistinguishable in all 

 good qualities for milling and baking from 

 Eed Fife. It resists well adverse weather 

 conditions. In earliness of ripening it is 

 ready for harvesting from 5 to 10 days before 

 Eed Fife, a matter of no small importance 

 for districts subject to early autumnal frosts. 

 Such a combination of good qualities easily 

 accounts for its success with farmers and its 

 great popularity. It is rapidly replacing all 

 the older early maturing wheats, including the 

 Eed Fife, on our western prairies. It won the 

 prize of $1,000 given at the land exhibition in 

 New York City in 1911, for the best 100 

 pounds of wheat grown on the continent of 

 North America, and in 1912 was the success- 

 ful competitor for the $2,500 prize awarded 

 by the Dry Farming Congress held in that 

 year at Lethbridge, Alberta. In 1913 it again 

 received the highest award at the Congress 

 held in Tulsa, Okla. We may thus safely say 

 that the problem that Dr. Saunders set him- 

 self, to produce a good wheat with an early 

 maturing habit suitable for general cultivation 

 in the Canadian northwest, has been success- 

 fully solved. The production of the Marquis 



wheat has demonstrated the value of research 

 work in agriculture and increased our pos- 

 sibilities as a wheat-growing country. Its 

 value to Canada is scarcely to be calculated in 

 thousands of dollars. 



Dr. Saunders was a great lover of the 

 beautiful in the out-of-doors, and to adorn the 

 grounds he had charge of he introduced from 

 other countries many shrubs and flowers. His 

 planning and planting of the grounds and 

 arboretum of the Central Farm and of much of 

 the Government Driveway, at Ottawa, testify 

 to his skill and good taste in landscape 

 gardening. 



Dr. Saunders's achievements were widely 

 recognized. For his valuable work in pro- 

 moting the interests of Canadian agriculture 

 he was the recipient of many honors from 

 learned societies and universities at home and 

 abroad. He received the honorary degree of 

 LL.D., from Queens University in 1896, and 

 the University of Toronto bestowed on him 

 the same honor in 1904. In 1905 he was 

 created by His Majesty, the late King Edward 

 VII., a Companion of the Most Distinguished 

 Order of Saint Michael and Saint George. 

 He was a Fellow of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the 

 Linnean Society of London, Corresponding 

 Member of the Eoyal Botanical Society, Fel- 

 low of the Chemical Society (London, Eng.), 

 and held a membership in many other soci- 

 eties devoted to the natural sciences. 



The Transactions of the Eoyal Society of 

 Canada, of which Dr. Saunders was made a 

 charter member on its formation in 1882, con- 

 tains many contributions from his pen. The 

 titles of some of these are " The Introduction 

 and Dissemination of Noxious Insects," " The 

 Importance of Economizing and Preserving 

 Our Forests," " The Influence of Sex in the 

 Hybridizing of Fruits," " Early Eipening 

 Cereals," " Progress of Experiments in Cross- 

 fertilizing at the Experimental Farms," " Ee- 

 sults of Tree Planting on the Northwestern 

 Plains," " Increased Production of Farm 

 Crops by Early Sowing." These titles indi- 

 cate his wide interests in economic phases of 



