Charles E. Saunders
1867-1937

Charles E. Saunders, a shy, quiet young man, was bullied by a dominating father into becoming a chemist instead of following his heart-felt wish to become a musician. As a result, he developed a grain that gave Canada the title of “granary of the world” and won him a knighthood. His discovery was Marquis wheat.

Born in London, Ontario, in 1867, as the youngest of six children Charles learned horticulture as a boy from his genius father,William, a druggist who owned a farm and put his children to work cross-breeding various berries and other products long before agricultural colleges had begun teaching such techniques. As a result, in 1886 William became the first director of Canada’s five experimental farms with headquarters in Ottawa.

By then, Charles was a student at the University of Toronto, his wish to pursue music having been overruled by his father, and spending his summers working with a brother, Percy, on one of the experimental farm’s major interests — development of a wheat strain that would mature in time to escape imminent frost. Following graduation in 1888, he attended Johns Hopkins University, receiving his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1891. He taught chemistry and geology at Central University in Kentucky before returning home in 1892 to marry Mary Blackwell who shared his love for music.

This photograph of Sir Charles Edward Saunders was taken in 1934, three years before his death. [Canada Department of Agriculture]

Together they opened a studio in Toronto, advertising that they were available for “concerts, recitals, etc.,” adding that“Saunders also accepts pupils in singing and flute playing.” Saunders also taught music at both Havergal and St. Margaret Ladies’ colleges but conceded, years later, that his music career “was doomed to failure because my standards were too high....I would not adopt popular music.”

The need for an earlier-maturing wheat for the prairies (which were being populated as the result of cheap land and railroad development) prompted William Saunders in 1903 to appoint Charles, who had earlier left music and joined the Experimental Farms, to the position of Dominion Cerealist.

Charles attacked the problem with long hours of work and infinite patience. Beginning with a re-examination of all the hybrid strains left in dozens of musty bottles from previous experiments dating back to 1892, he grew new strains and made single-head selections of the most promising results. This led, in 1893, to the planting of a hybrid Red Fife Hard and Red Fife Calcutta seed grown at Agassiz, British Columbia. When this showed a good yield and good chewing qualities (Charles had hit upon the shortcut of chewing seeds to determine their gluten quality) he grew more of this seed and sent 23 pounds to Angus McKay, head of the experimental farm at Indian Head, Saskatchewan.

The new seed matured three to ten days earlier than Red Fife. Harvest results over the next two years proved its superiority. In the meantime, not only making his own flour but also baking his own bread, Saunders continued to test it for milling and baking qualities and thereby confirmed its outstanding qualities. By 1909, McKay advised Saunders he had complete confidence in it.Named Marquis by Saunders, it was distributed to the farmers of the West for the spring planting of 1910.

Canada became a great agricultural nation largely because of Charles Edward Saunders. His development of the Marquis strain became "the wheat that won the west," making Canada one of the great grain-producing nations of the world. [C.J. Humber Collection]

One farmer who obtained five pounds of Marquis Wheat was so impressed with it that he entered the New York Land Show and won the $1,000 prize for the best hard spring wheat grown anywhere in the world. He won twice more with Marquis in1914 and 1915, and with other varieties in 1916 and 1918. Marquis, however, continued to be the dominant variety grown on the prairies: in fact, 90 percent of the more than 17 million acres of prairie wheat grown in 1920 was Marquis.

Charles went on to develop a new hull-less oat that he called Liberty, to improve varieties of barley and corn, and to prepare many papers that were given to agricultural and scientific groups in Canada, the USA, Britain, and France until poor health forced him to resign in 1922 on a pension of $900 a year.

Charles and Mary moved to Paris, studied literature at the Sorbonne, and lived happily but frugally on his meagre pension until western farmers, as one journalist put it, “raised more than wheat” and his pension was confirmed at $5,000 annually in 1925.That year he returned to Ottawa and was awarded the first Flavelle Medal for Science by the Royal Society of Canada and an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from the University of Toronto. In 1934, he was knighted.

By then Sir Charles had been recognized for an entirely new vocation. In 1928, a collection of his essays and poems printed in French won admiration in Quebec and France. The reviewer of Le Devoir wrote, “I was delighted to find humour rendered in French by a master of our tongue.” The French government decorated him for the work.

His Marquis wheat achievement, however, remained uppermost with the public. Invited to speak about it by the Royal Society in 1929, he humbly and humorously gave credit to “God Almighty” for the discovery and correctly predicted that if and when Marquis was replaced, it would likely be “a descendent who will be crowned.”

He was right. As early as 1916 rust began causing serious losses and numerous new varieties were developed: Thatcher,Renown, Apex, Regent, and Redmen. All had Marquis somewhere in their pedigrees.

Sir Charles died on July 25, 1937, one year after his wife. Among the worldwide obituaries was that of the London Daily Express which ended succinctly with the observation, “He added more wealth to his country than any other man. Marconi gave power. Saunders gave abundance. Great lives, these.”