DISCOVERY OF MAEQUIS WHEAT 161 



The result of importing and growing the seed of Mar- 

 quis on a large scale was that this wheat made very rapid 

 strides in the Iforthwestem States. Thus in North 

 Dakota, by 1915 — a year when this State is reported 

 to have produced 152,000,000 bushels of wheat ^' — a 

 very large percentage of the crop, at least 25 per cent., con- 

 sisted of Marquis; ^' and now (1918) Marquis is the chief 

 bread-wheat grown there, forming perhaps T5 per cent, 

 of the whole crop.-^^ 



In North Dakota, owing to general farming operations, 

 particularly the uninterrupted wheat culture on the same 

 land year after year, the wheat in that State, previously 

 to the introduction of Marquis, had become very gener- 

 ally mixesd through additions made by volunteer wheats, 

 etc. One ,»f the evil consequences of this was that the 

 ripening of thfe grain in the fields was irregular : the heads 

 did not all mature at the same time and farmers found 

 themselves in difficulty in deciding the time of cutting. 



Firms Locality Bushels 



W. J. Jennison Co Minneapolis 2,500 



Baldwin Flour Mills Moorhead, Minn 2,000 



McGill and Co , Fargo, N. D 1,100 



L. L. May and Co St. Paul, Minn 1,000 



Hanson and Barson Thief River Falls 1,000 



Total 182,172 



The direct importers of a large portion of these lots of wheat was 

 the O. J. Barnes Co., of Grand Forks, N. D. ; and this firm there- 

 fore played an important part in introducing Marquis into the 

 United States. Information supplied hy the Angus Mackay Farm 

 Seed Co. 



i« Year Book of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for 1915, 

 p. 422. 



17 This estimate is lower than that made for me by Professor 

 Bolley of the North Dakota Agricultural College and by Mr. 

 H. S. Helm of the Russell, Miller Milling Co., but is in accord 

 with the Table given further within this Section. 



18 Estimate made by Professor H. L. Bolley of the North Dakota 

 Agricultural College. 



