Sir Charles Edward Saunders’ accomplishments are well known to wheat growers today.
A century ago his experiments were on the verge of changing western Canadian agriculture forever.
Saunders was born in London, Ont., in 1867. In his youth, he showed a keen interest in the work of his father, William Saunders, an Agriculture Canada director responsible for establishing agricultural research stations across the recently created Dominion of Canada.
By the late 19th century, agriculture was gaining a tenuous toehold in Western Canada.
Farmers in the Red River settlement of current-day Manitoba were self sufficient in food production and thousands of European settlers were pushing westward into the virgin Canadian Prairies.
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With an expanding rail system and hundreds of thousands of acres of land being tilled for crop production, Canada was poised to become a major player in world wheat production.
But there was one major obstacle. The growing season was short and existing wheat varieties were notoriously slow to mature.
On many occasions, late maturing crops and early frosts proved to be a costly and heart-breaking combination for the pioneering farmers of Western Canada.
Saunders would deliver a solution.
In 1903, with Canadian wheat production at less than 100 million bushels, the elder Saunders appointed his son to the position of Dominion cerealist.
Charles, a meticulous notekeeper with a penchant for detail and an unwavering work ethic, wasted no time.
By early 1904, he had accumulated stocks of existing wheat lines and later that year was observing their performance in field trials in Ottawa.
Saunders’ dedication to plant selection was tireless.
From the early trials, he identified a hybrid line of hard red spring wheat that combined the milling qualities of Red Fife and the early maturity of Hard
Red Calcutta.
The best hybrid plants were selected, grown, screened, tested and replanted until, in 1907, Saunders had accumulated 40 pounds of a high quality, early maturing, hard red milling wheat that would later be known as Marquis.
According to wheat breeders and Canadian historians, it is not a stretch to say that Marquis wheat put the Canadian Prairies on the world map as a major producer and exporter of top quality milling wheat.
The new variety matured a week to 10 days earlier than Red Fife and quickly became the standard by which all other milling wheat was measured.
Of the 40 lb. of seed, 23 lb. were shipped to the newly created research station in Indian Head, Sask., and Marquis was tested in western Canadian conditions.
The results, according to Saunders’ records, were phenomenal.
By 1907, after the stocks had been multiplied, samples were distributed to more than 400 farmers in Western Canada.
A year later, Marquis was taking root on more than 2,000 farms in Saskatchewan and Alberta and by 1915, western Canadian farmers produced a bumper crop of 360 million bu. – surpassing the previous production record by more than 100 million bu.
By 1920, the new variety would account for 90
percent of all wheat acres planted in Western Canada.
Its only apparent shortcoming was susceptibility to stem rust, which, under the right growing conditions, could have a devastating impact on yields.
Marquis wheat is still revered as the wheat that brought prosperity to Western Canada.
As Canadian historian Grant MacEwan noted in his Illustrated History of Western Canadian Agriculture, “just about every western farmer became a Marquis enthusiast. Purebred bulls, fancy hotels, rural schools, municipalities and even babies were given the good Marquis name.”
In essence, Saunders’ work was a critical step in Canada’s efforts to populate the Prairies.
He retired in 1922 after 19 years as a plant breeder. He was knighted in 1934 and died three years later in Toronto.
