Seager Wheeler was one of Western Canada’s earliest and most renowned grain farmers, involved in cereal production, horticulture, seed selection, varietal improvement, plant breeding and the adoption of modern farming practices.
His contributions to plant science, soil science and dryland farming techniques in the early 20th century placed a spotlight on the agricultural potential of Western Canada at a time when prairie dryland farming was still in its formative stages in Canada.
After homesteading near Rosthern, Sask., in 1890, Wheeler quickly gained a reputation as a skilled farmer and cereal grower.
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In the early 1900s, with prairie wheat production still in its infancy, Wheeler acquired one of the first samples of a new early-maturing wheat variety named Marquis.
He quickly set to work multiplying the seed and by 1911, his sample of Marquis wheat was named the top entry at the world wheat championship, a competition open to wheat growers from around the world.
In subsequent years, Wheeler’s wheat samples would win top prize at the international competition four more times, a feat that earned Wheeler the unofficial title of World Wheat King and helped establish Saskatchewan and the Prairies as one of the top wheat producing regions in the world.
Originally from the Isle of Wight, Wheeler immigrated to Canada in 1885 and promptly headed West to what would later become Saskatchewan.
At the time, the dominion government was anxious to populate the Prairies and further establish its sovereignty in what was then known as the North-West Territories.
One of Ottawa’s key tools in accomplishing these goals was the promotion of agriculture.
Lured by the promise of free farmland, Wheeler arrived in the prairie town of Moose Jaw and spent his first year working odd jobs.
The following spring, he walked nearly 300 kilometres to Clark’s Crossing, north of Saskatoon, where an uncle had established a homestead a few years earlier.
There, Wheeler worked with his uncle and studied the science of farming.
Within four years, he had acquired his own tract of land near Rosthern, not far from the banks of the South Saskatchewan River.
At this location, now recognized as a Canadian National Historic Site, Wheeler began his important work as a farmer, plant breeder, agronomist, horticulturalist and inventor.
Throughout his farming career, Wheeler showed a keen interest in seed selection.
He used this skill to identify new and improved strains of oats, barley and wheat suited to prairie growing conditions.
Wheat strains developed through Wheeler’s meticulous seed selection efforts included Marquis 10B, Kitchener, Early Triumph, Supreme and Red Bobs, an early maturing variety that was widely adopted by farmers in the Peace River region of northern Alberta and British Columbia.
Wheeler also introduced several new horticultural species to north-central Saskatchewan, including hardy and early flowering crabapple and cherry species, hybrid plums and willow species of Siberian parentage.
A tireless educator, Wheeler also shared his knowledge with scientists, educators and farmers from Canada and around the world.
As his reputation in agriculture expanded, he spoke frequently on issues related to agriculture, and in 1919, the many articles he had written formed the basis of a book entitled Seager Wheeler’s Book on Profitable Dryland Farming. For years, the best selling book was considered the most comprehensive publication available to dryland farmers on the Prairies.
In his book entitled Canada’s Wheat King, The Life and Times of Seager Wheeler, author Jim Shilliday argues that today’s historians largely underappreciate Wheeler’s accomplishments.
“Although the federal government has proclaimed him an historic personage and his farm has been designated a national historic site, history itself has underestimated Wheeler’s contributions,” Shilliday wrote.
“Glory has been heaped upon Dr. Charles Saunders as the father of the famed Marquis wheat, but Seager Wheeler’s role in stabilizing this variety as Marquis10B has been almost completely forgotten.”
According to Shilliday, the Marquis 10B strain was hugely popular among prairie wheat producers and would later become the foundation stock of the Canadian Seed Growers Associations, an organization that Wheeler joined in 1908 and helped lead.
