DISCOVERY OF MARQTJIS WHEAT 147 



at the Experimental Farms, therefore, it was sent out to 

 several hundreds of farmers in the North-West, a large 

 number of whom reported favorably upon it* Thirty 

 years ago, however, it was impossible to make satisfactory 

 milling and baking tests, as is done now, with a few pounds 

 of wheat only, and some hundreds of bushels were needed 

 for this purpose. It was therefore necessary to wait 

 several years before enough Ladoga could be procured 

 to find out what qualities its flour really had. At length 

 Messrs. McLauchlin and Moore of the Royal Flour Mills, 

 Toronto, agreed to make a thorough test if a car-load 

 of Ladoga wheat could be supplied them. In 1892, there- 

 fore, the required car-load was obtained by Mr. Angus 

 McKay of Indian Head from the Prince Albert district 

 in Saskatchewan and conveyed to Toronto. Here the 

 milling test was carried out by the Royal Flour Mills and 

 the baking tests by several of the leading bakers of the 

 city. The results of these tests were sadly disappoint- 

 ing, for Ladoga flour proved to be deficient in strength 

 and produced bread which was very yellow in color and 

 of a coarse texture. Thus the hope of replacing Red 

 Fife by the earlier-ripening Ladoga, for export purposes, 

 was completely shattered.* 



Whilst making his vain search for a foreign early- 

 ripening variety of wheat which should possess, in addi- 

 tion to marked earliness, the high productiveness and 

 the excellent milling and baking qualities of Red Fife, 

 Dr. William Saunders was also endeavoring to obtain the 

 ideal wheat by combining the good qualities of two or 



3 Ladoga Wheat ; Part I by Wm. Saunders ; Part II, Report on the 

 Chemical Composition and Physical Characters of Ladoga, Red Fife 

 and other varieties of wheat by F. T. Shutt, Bulletin No. 4, Cen- 

 tral Experimental Farm, Ottawa, 1889. 



i William Saunders, Ladoga Wheat, Bulletin No. 18, Central Ex- 

 perimental Farm, Ottawa, 1893. 



