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Charles E. Saunders, youngest of
six children was born in London, Ontario in 1867.
While attending London Central School and the
Collegiate Institute, Charles was regarded as
a shy quiet young man with a burning desire to
be a musician. He 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. Londoner and federal Agricultural
Minister, John Carling appointed William as the
first director of the “Dominion Experimental
Farms” in 1886.
By then, Charles was a student at
the University of Toronto and spent his summers
working with his brother Percy on one of the experimental
farms. Following graduation in 1888, he attended
Johns Hopkins University receiving a PhD. 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.
Together, they opened a studio in
Toronto from where they offered concerts and recitals
and taught pupils in singing and flute playing.
He also became a newspaper columnist writing about
various aspects of music. Unfortunately, this
passion could not provide an adequate living.
He accepted a position working for the Experimental
Farm Services and in 1903 was appointed “Dominion
Cerealist”.
The need for earlier maturing wheat
for the prairies was critical as the Canadian
west was being populated with new farmers and
serviced with new railroads. Dr. Saunders attacked
the problem with long hours of work and infinite
patience. He started by re-examining the hybrid
strains left in dozens of musty bottles made from
experiments (some made by him and his brother)
dating back to 1892. He grew new strains and made
single head selections of the most promising plants.
One strain called “Markham” was the
result of a cross between Red Fife Hard and Red
Fife Calcutta. It showed good yield and good chewing
properties. It is noted that Saunders had hit
upon the shortcut of chewing seeds to determine
their gluten quality and hence the baking quality
of the flour that could be made from such wheat.
Further refinements and field tests led to a new
strain of wheat, which matured 3 to 10 days earlier
than Red Fife. Baking tests confirmed its outstanding
flour qualities. This strain, named “Marquis”
by Saunders, was multiplied and first released
to farmers in the spring of 1910. By 1920, because
of its popularity with farmers and millers, 90%
of the
17 million acres of the wheat grown in the prairies
was Marquis.
Dr. Charles Saunders continued his
breeding work with other grains including oats,
barley, peas, beans and flax. He developed a new
hull-less oat variety that he named “Liberty”.
He wrote and presented many papers to agricultural
and scientific groups in Canada, the United States,
Britain and France until poor health forced him
to resign in 1922. Charles and his wife Mary then
moved to Paris where he studied French literature
at the Sorbonne for three years before returning
to Canada. He continued to lecture on Marquis
Wheat and French literature but it was his Marquis
Wheat achievement that remained uppermost with
the public. In 1925, Canadian farmers independently
raised funds to increase his annual pension from
$900 to $5,000 a year. The combination of increased
settlement of the west, rail transportation and
this variety of wheat, led to the Canadian prairies
being called “The Breadbasket of The World”.
His achievements led to honorary degrees from
the universities of Western Ontario and Toronto,
being made a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
and the first recipient of The Flavelle Medal
for Science .In 1934, Charles Saunders was knighted
by King George V for his contributions to agriculture.
Sir Charles died in Toronto in 1937. Tributes
came from around the world. An excerpt from the
London Daily Express read:
“He added more wealth to his
country than any other man
Marconi gave power. Saunders gave abundance.
Great lives, these!”
Today, by inducting him into our
Hall of Fame, we too recognize the great contributions
made to Canadian agriculture by London born, Sir
Charles Edward Saunders.
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