DISCOVERY OF MAEQUIS WHEAT 253 



about 80 per cent, of the wheat grown on summer fallow 

 in the West is Marquis,'^ and that on summer fallow Mar- 

 quis yields at least 20 per cent, more wheat in bushels 

 than Red Fife which it has replaced.*^ Now let us sup- 

 pose that we are dealing with a crop of 200,000,000 

 bushels, which, as a matter of fact, is less than the aver- 

 age for the last five years." One half of this, i. e., 



reasons : ( 1 ) There is insufficient rainfall to produce a maximum 

 crop with the rain of the current season only. Summer fallowing, 

 by preventing weeds from growing and exhausting the moisture, and 

 by keeping the surface of the ground pulverized and thereby check- 

 ing evaporation, largely conserves the moisture of the one season 

 and carries it over to the next. (2) The weeds are controlled. On 

 summer fallow the weed seeds at the surface of the soil germinate 

 and then the weeds are killed by cultivation. In this way summer 

 fallowing, in a normal season, practically insures a good crop. On 

 the other hand, sowing on stubble land is somewhat precarious. It 

 costs relatively little to sow on stubble, for such land is easily pre- 

 pared, whereas summer fallow requires to be worked the whole sea- 

 son. Therefore in good seasons, even if the yield is reduced as com- 

 pared with summer fallow, stubble sowing is very profitable, if not 

 the most profitable method of farming. However, in bad seasons, 

 stubble farming is sometimes a total failure. 



31 Mr. George Serls, the Chief Grain Inspector for the Dominion of 

 Canada, has kindly informed me that, from estimates made during 

 inspections, Marquis forms at least 80 per cent, of the wheat crop of 

 the West. It is therefore only reasonable to conclude that at least 

 80 per cent, of the wheat crop grown on summer fallow, where Mar- 

 quis does so well, is Marquis. 



32 This is a conservative estimate. Cf. data given in Section X on 

 Long-period Tests for Earliness and Yield. 



S3 The average annual wheat crop for western Canada (Manitoba, 

 Saskatchewan, and Alberta) during the last five years has been 

 233,000,000 bushels and for the whole of Canada 256,000,000 bushels; 

 but the wheat area for the whole country has increased from 11,- 

 015,000 acres in 1913 to 16,080,800 acres in 1918 and is still being 

 extended, so that it is to be expected that during the next five years 

 the average annual wheat crop will show a considerable increase over 

 that for the last five years. The area seeded to wheat in western 

 Canada in 1918 was stated by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics on 

 June 12 to be 15,196,300 acres. The rest of Canada, therefore, this 

 year has only 884,500 acres under wheat. The following are the 



