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| The Marquis Wheat Commemorative; $100, 2003.
Few inventors were more reluctant to approach their craft and few more dedicated once they had been forced to it than Charles Edward Saunders (1867-1937). In delicate health and painfully shy, his real interest was music. However, his father, William Saunders, strong-willed and energetic enough for ten, literally forced his son to study chemistry at the University of Toronto (at which Charles was proficient enough to acquire a Ph.D in the subject from Johns Hopkins University in 1891). Briefly becoming a university chemist instructor, he soon chucked it to teach music and the flute - at which he nearly starved.
But his father, energetic as he was, was still in danger of being swamped by his work. William Saunders (1836-1914) was born in England but emigrated to Canada when he was 12. No shrinking violet, he studied chemistry, set himself up as a manufacturing chemist in London , Upper Canada , in the field of agricultural chemistry and established his own experimental farm for the purpose in 1868. Soon he was elected head of the Canadian Horticultural Society and in 1884 made the first director of the Dominion Experimental Farms.
Director Saunders found himself at an impasse by the late 1890s. Canada 's prairies were filling up and yet vast areas of potential wheat country could not be used for the simple reason that the best wheat strain, Red Fife , needed a slightly longer growing season to properly ripen with assurance. Hundreds of crosses of wheat strains from around the world were being tried but the director was simply too swamped with his administrative duties (in 1894, he personally wrote over 11,000 letters!) to properly attend to these experiments. His answer lay in nepotism, which was condoned much more then than now. Being well acquainted with his son Charles' abilities, he determined to bring him into the project. Not only was Charles a skilful (though perhaps reluctant) chemist, he had the born researcher's ability to judge likely characteristics just by looking at them. William therefore persuaded the government that the new position of "Dominion Cerealist" be created and that his son Charles be appointed to it. This was done and William telegraphed Charles of the offer. Charles refused, preferring his music. William had no idea what "No" meant and, in 1903, Charles was confirmed in the position, going on to fill the post in remarkably able fashion.
C.E. Saunders in the experimental plot of "Marquis" wheat, about 1908.
One of the hundreds of crosses made with Red Fife was (of all things) Hard Red Calcutta from India . This promising strain proved its worth in the short, cold 1907/8 season when practically no wheat in the west did well - with the exception of the 23 pounds of experimental seed for the new Marquis hybrid; it throve. In addition to all its good physical qualities, Marquis also ripened some ten days earlier than its competitors. In 1911, it won the prize for "Best Bushel of Hard Spring Wheat Grown in North America " - and won it every year until 1918 as well. By 1920, 90% of the wheat grown on the Prairies was Marquis . Although sub-strains of Marquis started to take over, it remarkably returned to the fore in the 1950s, winning the top prize again several times. Charles Saunders, the reluctant plant scientist, probably contributed more to the wealth of Canada than any man before or since. Perhaps it is fitting to know that upon his retirement, his piddling $900 per year civil servant's pension was raised to $5000 through the agitation of the wheat farmers' organizations.
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May 2007Postal Currency of the World; An Overview The Marquis Wheat Commemorative; $100, 2003
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