90 BULLETIN 10*74, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



katchewan. It was distributed for the first time in 1918, and its history was 

 recorded the following year by Mr. Burns in the National Alfalfa Journal (55). 

 A fuller history of this variety has been recorded by Buller (50, p. 259-275). 

 It is evidently the result of a natural field hybrid between Bobs and a red- 

 kerneled variety. 



Distribution. — Grown at several experiment stations in the northwestern 

 United States and commercially in Canada and probably to a limited extent in 

 the Dakotas and Minnesota in 1920, as the seed has been advertised for sale for 

 three years. It was not reported in the varietal survey. 



MARQUIS. 



Description. — Plant spring habit, early, short to midtall ; stem white, strong ; 

 spike awnless, fusiform, dense, erect ; glumes glabrous, white to yellowish, 

 short, wide; shoulders midwide to wide, usually square; beaks wide, acute, 

 0.5 mm. long; apical awns few, 1 to 10 mm. long; kernels red, short, hard, 

 ovate, with truncate tip; germ midsized; crease wide, deep; cheeks angular; 

 brush midsized, midlong. 



This is a high-yielding spring wheat, and it is one of the best varities for 

 milling and bread making. Its high yield and popularity are due principally 

 to its early maturity, which has sometimes enabled it to escape stem rust 

 and drought. Spikes, glumes, and kernels are shown in Plate XXI, A. 



History. — Marquis is of hybrid origin, having been originated by the cereal- 

 ists of the Dominion Department of Agriculture at the Central Experimental 

 Farm, Ottawa, Canada. The crossing which resulted in the origin of Marquis 

 was done under the direction of Dr. William Saunders, former Dominion cereal- 

 ist. To the present Dominion cerealist, Dr. C. E. Saunders, the credit for 

 originating (selecting, naming, testing, and distributing) the variety is due. 

 He has given an account of its origin in the following words (167, p. 118-120) : 



All the details in regard to the origin of Marquis are not available, but it 

 is one of the descendants of a cross between an early-ripening Indian wheat, 

 Hard Red Calcutta (as female) and Red Fife (as male). The cross (as 

 appears from unpublished notes) was made by Dr. A. P. Saunders, probably 

 at the experimental farm at Agassiz, in the year 1892. The crossbred seeds, 

 or their progeny, were transferred to Ottawa and when the writer of this re- 

 port was appointed in 1903 to take charge of the work of cereal breeding he 

 made a series of selections from the progeny of all the crossbred wheats which 

 had been produced at Ottawa up to that time. Some of these had been named 

 and others were under numbers. Though they had all been subjected to a 

 certain amount of selection, each of them consisted of a mixture of related 

 types. In some cases all the types present ^ere similar. In other instances 

 striking differences were observed. The grain which had descended from the 

 cross referred to above was found by careful study of individual plants (espe- 

 cially by applying the chewing test to ascertain the gluten strength and prob- 

 able bread-making value) to be a mixture of similar looking varieties which 

 differed radically in regard to gluten quality. One of the varieties isolated 

 from this mixture was subsequently named Marquis. Its high bread-making 

 strength and color of flour were demonstrated in the tests made at Ottawa in 

 the early months of 1907, and all the surplus seed was at once sent to the 

 Indian Head Experimental Farm for propagation. 



It will be clearly seen from the above account that the question, " When 

 was Marquis wheat originated?" can never be answered. It came into ex- 

 istence probably at Ottawa between the years 1895 and 1902. It remained, 

 however, mixed with other related sorts until discovered by the writer in 

 1903. It was first grown in a pure state in 1904, when a few seeds were sown 

 in a sheltered garden on the Central Experimental Farm. Even then, however, 

 its fine qualities were only partly known, and it was not until the cerealist's 

 baking tests of 1907 were completed that he decided to send out this wheat 

 for trial in Saskatchewan. Its success in the prairie country was phenomenal. 



