DISCOVERY OF MARQUIS WHEAT 225 



Bluestem/^ Dr. Charles Saunders of Ottawa his Early- 

 Red Fife,^ Professor W. P. Thompson of the University 

 of Saskatchewan his remarkable Dwarf Marquis,^ and 



yield of grain of exactly three bushels per acre over the next highest 

 yielding variety ( ibid., p. 7 ) . 



98 Bluestem was being grown in 1855 in some Eastern States of the 

 U. S. A. as a red winter wheat. It was then taken west and 

 grown in the spring-wheat States as a spring wheat, where ap- 

 parently it became harder. Haynes began to grow it in 1882 but 

 foimd it mixed with some soft and bearded wheats. In 1884 he 

 therefore planted in his garden the grains " from two good heads, 

 having three kernels abreast, hoeing it as it grew." From the 

 progeny of the two heads he selected only the best and earliest for 

 the next sowing. He was then spurred on by hearing of Major 

 Hallett's selection work in England. Eleven years of careful and 

 continuous head selection of Bluestem resulted " in increasing the 

 number of kernels abreast of the spikelet from three to four, with 

 the fifth kernel beginning to make its appearance." Further, says 

 Haynes " The length of the heads is increased about one-third, 

 and the berry is much improved in uniformity of color and hard- 

 ness. Another important feature is in the earlier maturity by 

 five days more than formerly." L. H. Haynes, private pamphlet, 

 3% by 5% inches, 11 pages, Fargo, North Dakota, published about 

 1895. For a typewritten copy of this pamphlet I am indebted to Dr. 

 H. K. Hayes, in charge of Plant Breeding at the Minnesota Experi- 

 ment Station, St. Paul. 



1 Saunders' strain of Early Red Fife was obtained from a single 

 early-ripening plant occurring in a plot of Red Fife. It is just 

 like Red Fife in appearance but ripens a few days earlier (C. E. 

 Saunders, Methods of Selection, Experimental Farms Reports for 

 1909, pp. 202-203). 



2 Dwarf Marquis, which with Professor Thompson's permission is 

 here mentioned in cereal literature for the first time, has heads 

 of the same length as those of Marquis but straw which is only 

 one-quarter of the usual length or even less. It arose from a single 

 dwarf plant which came to perfection in a plot of pure-line Marquis 

 at the University of Saskatchewan, and it has bred true for several 

 years without any signs of breaking up. It never gives rise to tall 

 plants; the progeny of each year are all dwarfs. Dwarf Marquis, 

 owing to its excessively short straw is, of course, of no commercial 

 importance but it is of high interest as bearing on the genetics of 

 wheat. The writer in 1918 saw Dwarf Marquis at Saskatoon grow- 

 ing in one of Professor Thompson's plots and it presented a very 

 striking contrast with Marquis. An interesting parallel is afforded 



