PREFACE 



Marquis Wheat is one of the most valuable food plants 

 in the world. In the year 1917 upwards of 250,000,000 

 bushels of it were raised in North America, and in 1918 

 upwards of 300,000,000 bushels; and, owing to its high 

 yield per acre, it was an important factor in assisting the 

 Allies to overcome the food crisis in the darkest period 

 of the war. The whole of the Marquis Wheat at present in 

 existence originated from a single grain of wheat planted 

 in an experimental plot at Ottawa by Dr. Charles E. 

 Saunders so recently as the spring of 1903. 



I have written this book, in the first place, to do justice 

 to Dr. Charles E. Saunders as the discoverer and intro- 

 ducer of Marquis, and, in the second place, to put on record 

 facts which have an important bearing upon the agricul- 

 tural progress of both Canada and the United States. I 

 undertook the task of penning the history of Marquis with 

 all the more pleasure on account of the fact that I have 

 lived for nearly fifteen years at Winnipeg, in the center 

 of the great spring-wheat region of N^'orth America, and 

 for the reason that, as a Canadian citizen, I have shared 

 in the general prosperity that has come to the Dominion 

 through the development of her wheat-lands. 



The heart of what I wish to say is contained in the 

 Third Chapter on The Discovery and Introduction of 

 Marquis Wheat; but, for the purpose of making the book 

 more comprehensive and of supplying information for 

 which I feel there is a considerable demand, I have written 

 two preliminary chapters, called respectively : The Early 



