DISCOVERY OF MARQUIS WHEAT 239 



adequate financial and moral support to investigations di- 

 rected toward the welfare of the State. The starvation 

 of scientific research is truly the worst economy of which 

 a statesman can be guilty. 



XXX. Other Work of Dr. Saunders 



In addition to his work upon wheat, Dr. Saunders, as 

 Dominion Cerealist, has been engaged in making selections 

 of, and in breeding, new types of other cereals and of peas. 



From Mensury barley (of supposed Manchurian origin) 

 Dr. Saunders made a selection called Manchurian which 

 is a fine six-rowed bearded variety with an excellent yield. 

 It has been grown successfully on a large scale in various 

 parts of Canada. Another selection known as 0. A. 0. 

 No. 21 was made by Professor C. A. Zavitz at the Ontario 

 Agricultural College from a barley which he obtained 

 under the name of Mandscheuri. These two varieties 

 have added much to the productivity of barley in this 

 country.-^* 



13 Mandscheuri barley was imported from Kussia by the Ontario 

 Agricultural College in the spring of 1889. It was found to be more 

 productive than any of the other six-rowed barleys tested: it gave 

 an average yield of 9.3 bushels per acre per annum over the Common 

 Six-rowed barley as an average for fifteen years ; and it was therefore 

 introduced into general cultivation in Ontario. In 1905, Professor 

 'Zavitz pointed out that barley production in Ontario had risen from 

 24.85 bushels for the ten-year period 1885-94 inclusive to 29.3 

 bushels per acre for the ten-year period 1895-1904 inclusive; and 

 he attributed the general rise in productivity of 4% bushels per 

 acre to the substitution of Mandscheuri barley for lesser yielding 

 varieties. After calculating the increased value which was accruing 

 to the Ontario barley crop through the raising of Mandscheuri, he 

 asked of the public and the legislators, without whose intelligent sup- 

 port the work of agricultural colleges cannot properly be carried on, 

 the following very pertinent question : " From these results, does 

 it not appear as though the introduction of Mandscheuri barley by 

 the Ontario Agricultural College has been worth to the Province of 

 Ontario within the past ten years an annual money value equal to 



