41 A Belt of Wheat 1907

When a country is one of the top 10 growers of wheat in the world, it is important that their wheat crops are strong. Better wheat means more money for the farmer. Wheat that has a lot of protein makes good bread. Wheat that takes less time to grow is safer to plant because it doesn't need water or sunshine for as long. If the weather turns cold it is not a problem because the wheat is already out of the ground.

About 25 million acres of wheat are grown in Canada every year. That is the size of Jiangsu province in China. This wheat is grown in three Canadian provinces, called the Prairies-Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Almost one billion bushels of wheat are grown in the Canadian Prairies every year. A bushel is the same as 35 litres. China grows more than four billion bushels. Even though Canada is not the top grower of wheat in the world the grain is very important to Canada's economy.

When people in Canada eat a doughnut, one of their favourite cakes made from wheat, they can thank Charles Sanders for helping to make it. All of the wheat grown in Canada today has a little of the DNA of the wheat that Charles grew about 100 years ago.

Although the Canadian prairies had good earth for growing wheat in 1907, sometimes the temperature would drop below zero before the farmers took the wheat out of the ground. Then, the crop would die and the farmers would lose all their money. Charles' father had a farm where he tried to make better fruit trees. He called his farm the Experimental Farm Service. He and his two sons worked there. The Sanders men took two types of good fruit trees, put them together, and tried to make an even better fruit. After a while, they became interested in doing the same with wheat.

The Sanders collected wheat from all over the world. Charles took two types of wheat and mixed them together. He grew this wheat and tested it. He was trying to make stronger wheat with more protein. Charles used a Canadian wheat and mixed it with wheat from other countries. He planted each new type, grew the wheat and then tested this new wheat to see if it was better.

CANADA'S LARGEST EXPORT IS WHEAT

Charles did not have a proper laboratory to test the wheat. He did not have a way to grind the wheat into flour. He did not have an oven for baking the wheat into bread. He had to find a different way to test these new grains. Charles would take some of the grains of wheat and put them into his mouth. He would chew them. He would chew and chew and chew and chew them. Then Charles would chew the grains some more until they were like a paste. When Charles found a paste that stayed together very well he would then try the next experiment. He would grow the grains and then make the wheat into flour. He would bake this flour to see if it made a good bread.

Charles spent many, many years making new grains. One year he made a wheat he called Marquis. Charles took all the Marquis grains and chewed them. He liked the paste they made. He planted 12 grains that he had not completely chewed into a paste. They grew well. They grew fast. They made very good bread. Charles had finally made the new wheat that he had been looking for.

Canadian farmers said Marquis was the best wheat in North America. It was a hard wheat. It was good for the cold, Canadian earth. It had a lot of protein. All farmers wanted it. Charles did not have enough grains to sell to everyone in the first year. One farmer who did get some grains, named Seager Wheeler, grew the wheat in 1911. His neighbours said it was the best wheat they had ever seen. They said Seager should put his wheat into the Provincial Seed Fair competition. Marquis wheat won first prize in that competition, and Seager won $1000 in gold. That was enough money for Seager to buy his whole farm.

Soon Seager was famous. All the newspapers wrote about Marquis wheat. Seager won two more competitions with Marquis wheat-one in 1914 and another one in 1915. In 1915, Canada grew a huge amount of wheat-300,000,000 bushels. Some people thought it was because of Marquis wheat. Some people thought it was because of the good earth in Saskatchewan. This made farmers decide to move to the Prairies and grow wheat. Marquis wheat started the second largest settlement of farmers in Western Canada after the railway.

Because of Marquis wheat, Canada became known as a great grain growing country. The bread made from the Marquis wheat flour was thought to be the best. For the next 50 years, all breads made were compared to Marquis breads. Farmers who lived farther north could grow Marquis wheat because it matured before the temperature got very cold.

Today, farmers grow different types of wheat. They no longer plant Marquis wheat because new types have been made that are better. Canadian wheat is so good that it has the highest price on the world market. All the wheat that is grown on the Prairies today was first mixed with Marquis grain to make it. You can say that Marquis grain is the great grandfather of Canadian wheat.