The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1916-06-16
Marquis Wheat.

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being harvested in 1914. This
has produced an abundance of
seed and many farmers have been
considering the ACCESSIBILITY OF
growing this variety in the future.
For this reason the results of the
Government test of this wheat,
published in Farmers Bulletin
1872, will be of special interest.
Marquis wheat, says the bulle-
tin, is a hybrid produced on the
Central Experiment Farm at
Ottawa, Canada. It is an early
variety, ripening from SO to 1876
days after sowing, the average
length of the growing period in
the northern Great Plains being
about 115 days. This makes it
three or four days earlier than
most of the Fife varieties, the
group with which it is classed.
Because of this earliness, Marquis
wheat escapes to some extent the
drought of dry years, the rust and
fall rains of wet seasons, and the
early fall frosts. These char
acteristics have made if especially
valuable in the prairie Provinces
of Canada. In the United States
they have not proved to be so
great an advantage.
In the northern prairie states,
including Iowa, Minnesota, and
subhumid parts of eastern Ne
braska, and the two Dakotas, the |!
Government investigators found
that Marquis wheat slightly out
yields the groups of spring wheat
commonly grown in the section.
Where winter wheat can be
grown, however, it outyields any
spring wheat. Marquis included.
The bulletin recommends caution
in discarding well-known varieties
and advises the farmer who
wishes to try Marquis to compare
t carefully with the other spring
wheats and to hold fast to that
which proves best.
In the semiarid section covering
most of the northern half of the
Great Plains area and including
most of Nebraska, the Dakotas,
northeastern Colorado, eastern
Wyoming, and the eastern half of
dontana, the durum wheats have 7
'een found to outyield all the ]
pring common varieties, includ-
ng Marquis. Here again, how
yer, winter wheat is decidedly q
etter than any spring wheat. The 2
1arquis is not recommended, q
therefore,, wherever winter wheat 7
an be grown or wherever durum P
1heat is used. Elsewhere is a +,
afe variety to grow and is espec- t,
lily well adapted to central South d
'akota where drought and rust S
ften reduce the yield of later O.
laturing varieties.
Marquis wheat is not recon- L
tended for any district west of G
lie Rocky Mountains. In the H
heat d istricts of Utah, Idaho,
RECON, and Washington the hard F
I'd winter wheats of the Crimean
roup are now widely grown and
ltyield any variety of spring c.
heat. In most places, moreover,
pod varieties of spring wheat
ltyield the Marquis. l..
Marquis wheat has not been Ju
own to any extent under irriga-
On, but in western South Dakota
I'd in Montana has given good re- of
Its under these conditions, ac- o.
riding to the limited information tr,
,ailable. 1t should not be grown lot
lder irrigation west of the Rocky Rs
where there is good fiji,
,mand for the soft white wheats, Tt
of which outyield it. to
In appearance Marquis wheat Pc
osely resembles the Fife wheats at
the northern Great Plains states. of
is a beardless spring variety
th hairless white chaff or Jol
lmes and a hard red kernel. En-
IF flour making it is regarded as Nc
st class. Numerous milling
IFS show that in this respect it III,