Canada's Wheat King: The Life and Times of Seager Wheeler.

Michael Payne is head of the reasearch and publications program,
Historic Sites and Archives Service, Alberta Community Development, and
co-author of A Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan.

Although his farm is now a national historic site and his contributions to farming are commemorated in various ways, including membership in the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame, today most Canadians have little or no sense of who Seager Wheeler was or why he matters. The changing economy of the Prairie provinces means fewer people earn their livings through agriculture, so the distinction of being crowned North America’s “Wheat King”—not once but five times—has lost much of its lustre.

However, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, wheat was the big business in the Canadian West and a handful of Canadian farmers were regularly recognized for growing the finest wheat on the continent. Wheeler, and later Herman Trelle, were the most successful of these competitive Canadian wheat growers. However, Wheeler’s significance goes far beyond the recognition he received as a champion grower. His greatest contribution was in developing faster-maturing, disease-resistant, and better-yielding wheat varieties on his farm at Rosthern, Saskatchewan. While he cannot be credited with developing the first version of Marquis wheat, he perfected a variety of this wheat called Marquis 10B that revolutionized wheat farming on the northern plains. For decades it was the most common seed type used by Western Canadian wheat farmers.

Wheeler went on to develop several other wheat varieties, and experimented with other grain types and developed many tree, fruit, and vegetable varieties adapted to growing conditions in the Canadian West. Seed from his crops was sold to farmers throughout the West, improving yields and thus farm income for thousands.

This is the first full-length biography of this remarkable man. It is written in a breezy, journalistic style but is based on extensive secondary and some primary research as well. By the end of the book, readers will have a much better sense of how an unassuming immigrant from the Isle of Wight helped make Western Canada a bread basket to the world.