b. 2 Feb 1867, London, Ont.-d. 25 July 1937, Toronto
Experimentalist, later Dominion cerealist
Experimental Farms Service
Charles Saunders was born in London, Ontario, and educated at U of T and Johns Hopkins U. Briefly a professor of chemistry, he studied music and teaching of voice for nine years until his father, William Saunders, appointed him to the Experimental Farms Service as experimentalist. There he developed Marquis, the strain that made Canada famous for its hard red spring wheat, which matures early, produces high volume, and is excellent for bread. In 1922, Saunders' health broke down and he moved to Paris where he studied French literature for 3 years. He was knighted in 1934.
More detail: Third son of William Saunders, and assisted him in plant hybridization, entomology and music. Prof. of chemistry, Central U., Ky., 1892-93. Study of music and voice teacher, 1894-1903. Experimentalist, Experimental Farms Service, 1903-22 (title later cerealist, 1905, then Dominion cerealist, 1910). Saunders applied scientific methods to his task and spent summers selecting individual heads of wheat from breeding material previously selected in mass. >From a cross of Hard Red Calcutta by Red Fife, made in 1892 by his brother A.P. Saunders, the variety Markham resulted. This did not produce uniform offspring, however. Saunders carefully selected individual heads from early plants that had stiff straw. He emphasized that seed from each plant was grown separately with no mixing of strains. Selection was rigorous, only the top lines being kept. He determined which lines had strong gluten by chewing a sample of kernels, and he introduced the baking of small loaves to measure volume. The best strain was named Marquis and testing began in 1907 in Saskatchewan. Marquis remains the standard for bread making. Saunders also applied his single-line methods to barley, oats, peas, beans and flax and introduced several new excellent varieties of each kind of crop.
Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia, 1988
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