4 BULLETIN 878, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
The Marquis is a selection from a hybrid produced by crossing a hard red wheat 
from Calcutta, India, and the well-known Red Fife. This cross was made by Dr. 
A. P. Saunders about 1892. The Marquis was selected and named by Dr. C. E. 
Saunders, Dominion Cerealist, and was first grown as a pure line at Ottawa, Canada, 
in 1904. It resembles the Red Fife except that the culms, spikes, glumes, and ker- 
nels are somewhat shorter, the glumes are more persistent, and the plant matures 
earlier. 
Red Fife. — The original Red Fife wheat is supposed to have come from Russia by 
way of Germany and Scotland. About 75 years ago a Mr. David Fife, of Otonabee, 
Ontario, Canada, received a small sample of wheat from a friend in Glasgow, Scotland. 
The friend had obtained the sample from a shipload of wheat from Germany, but 
supposedly of Russian origin. Mr. Fife sowed the wheat in the spring, but it proved 
to be a winter wheat. However, a plant of spring wheat developed in the plat, and 
this was saved and increased. This wheat became widely grown in Canada and known 
as Red Fife. It has been grown in the United States since the early development of 
the northern Great Plains area, but in this country has been known more generally 
as Fife, Scotch Fife, Canadian Fife, and Saskatchewan Fife. From these have arisen 
strains developed by farmers and experiment stations, which made up a large part 
of the spring wheat of America until replaced by the Marquis variety. Of the two 
lots of Red Fife wheat listed in this bulletin, C. I. No. 3329 was obtained from the 
Brandon Experiment Farm, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, while C. I. No. 3694 rep- 
resents commercial stocks grown in North Dakota. 
Power. — The stock known as Power (Power Fife) was started about 1885 by Mr. 
James Holes, of Fargo, N. Dak., from a single plant of Red Fife wheat found growing 
in an oat field; Some of this seed was obtained by Mr. J. B . Power, of Power, N. Dak., 
who increased it and distributed it in large quantities; hence the name. 
Seed from Mr. Power was called No. 66 by the North Dakota Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station and distributed quite widely through North Dakota in the nineties as 
"Station No. 66." In 1892 selections were made from it at the North Dakota station 
at Fargo, and in recent years one of these selections (N. Dak. No. 313; C. I. No. 3697) 
has been grown in preference to the original stock. This strain appears to be very 
similar to the Red Fife (C. I. No. 3329) from Canada. 
Glyndon. — The Glyndon strain of Red Fife dates at least from 1891, when it was 
first grown as No. 811 at the Glyndon Experiment Farm in western Minnesota. In 
the burning of the Glyndon station buildings all record of its origin was lost. Without 
doubt, however, it was one of the many samples of Red Fife wheat obtained from 
Minnesota farmers in 1888 and 1889. The Glyndon differs from the Power and Red 
Fife wheats in being slightly taller and in having longer and more tapering spikes 
and longer kernels. 
In 1892 a selection of this Glyndon No. 811 was made and later given Minnesota 
station number 163 (C. I. No. 2873). It was grown and distributed by the Minnesota 
Agricultural Experiment Station for many years as "Minnesota No. 163," but by 1914 
was named Glyndon. 
Rysting. — Rysting (Rysting Fife) was developed about 1892 by Mr. Jens Rysting, 
of Buxton, N. Dak. Mr. Rysting had been selecting this wheat for several years and 
claimed that it was earlier than ordinary Red Fife. The Rysting and the Glyndon 
varieties are nearly alike. 
Early Red Fife. — Early Red Fife is an early-ripening selection of the original Red 
Fife wheat made by Dr. C. E. Saunders at the Central Experiment Farm, Ottawa, 
Canada. 
Kitchener. — Kitchener wheat is a result of a selection from a field of the Marquis 
variety made by Mr. Seager Wheeler of Rosthem, Saskatchewan, Canada, who first 
distributed it in 1916. It differs from Marquis wheat in being somewhat later and 
taller and in having purple straw and a clavate spike. 
