DISCOVERY OF 'MAEQUIS WHEAT 181 



very early coming on o£ cold weather usually prevents Red 

 Fife from ripening at all, and even seriously affects 

 Marquis. 



There can be no question that the early-ripening habit 

 of Marquis is a most valuable character so far as escap- 

 ing early frosts is concerned, and that it has already 

 brought about in Canada a saving of great quantities of 

 "wheat which in its absence would have been spoiled. 



The farther north man makes his abode and seeks his 

 sustenance, the more necessary is it for him to grow 

 early-maturing wheats. Dr. William Saunders, many 

 years ago, introduced Ladoga, which ripens about ten days 

 earlier than Eed Fife, into the Peace Eiver valley. At 

 Dunvegan and at Fort Vermilion, 414 miles and 591 

 miles by latitude due north of Winnipeg respectively, this 

 wheat has been raised in good condition, so that it weighed 

 per bushel 64 lbs. at the former place and 60 lbs. at the 

 latter. Mr. J. M. Macoun, after making investigations 

 on the spot, reported that in 1903 about 7,500 bushels of 

 wheat had been raised in the neighborhood of Vermilion 

 and that one of the settlers there had obtained 40 bushels 

 per acre from 50 acres. Even at Fort Simpson, which is 

 situated on the Mackenzie Eiver, 818 miles by latitude 

 north of Winnipeg and only 324 miles south of the Arctic 

 Circle, the early-maturing Ladoga has been successfully 

 raised, so that it weighed 62^4 lbs. to the bushel. In this 

 instance, however, a small percentage of the grain was in- 

 jured by frost.*® 



*5 Experimental Farms Report for 1903, p. 11. The Hudson's Bay 

 Company long had a roller mill at Vermilion. In 1903 it had a 

 capacity of 20 barrels a day. At that time the Company was giv- 

 ing $1.50 per bushel for all wheat grown in the vicinity with the 

 object of supplying all their northern posts with Vermilion flour. 

 Recently Vermilion became connected with Edmonton by means of 

 the Edmonton, Dunvegan, and British Columbia Railway and by 

 steamship service. Flour is now taken northwards to Vermilion 



