170 



ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



Alberta. In this vast territory, in the spring of 1918, 

 Canadian and American farmers sowed Marquis upon 

 about 20,000,000 acres ; and, if one were to travel in sum- 

 mertime from the most southerly point in Nebraska where 

 Marquis is grown, due northwards, through South Dakota 

 and North Dakota, to the most northerly point in Sas- 

 katchewan where Marquis is grown, one would pass fields 

 of Marquis for a distance of 800 miles. When one reflects 

 that the thousands of millions of Marquis wheat-plants 

 which turned from green to gold under the summer sun 

 of this year, 1918, all had their origin in a single grain 

 of wheat planted at Ottawa so recently as the spring of 

 1903, one cannot help feeling that one is here presented 

 with one of the most extraordinary examples of vegetable 

 increase that our planet has ever seen. This increase, 

 which is probably a record for Flowering Plants, has been 

 made possible: firstly, by the wonderful means of com- 

 munication and transportation which are now everywhere 

 available and, secondly, by the highly advantageous co- 

 operation of the cerealists, seedsmen, grain merchants, 

 millers, and farmers of two friendly nations. There are 

 no more pleasant and mutually profitable invasions than 

 those which are accomplished by battalions of wheat-plants 

 from the North, and battalions of corn-plants from the 

 South. May this delightful warfare long continue ! 



VIII. Oeneral Description of Marquis 



Marquis is one of the hard red spring wheats and is 

 classed among the beardless varieties, although, in common 

 with Ked Fife, White Fife, Glyndon, Haynes' Bluestem, 

 etc., it carries a few short awns at the tip of the head. 

 The head is of medium length and somewhat pointed at the 

 tip. The chaff is smooth and of a straw-yellow color. 

 The straw is somewhat shorter and less liable to lodge than 



