David Alexander Fife (1805–1877) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

-born

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

farmer credited with developing the variety of wheat which later became known as

Red Fife Red Fife (''Triticum aestivum'') wheat is a Canadian landrace descendant of wheat from Galicia, Ukraine, its old local Galician name being "Halychanka". It is a hard, bread wheat with straws 0.9 to 1.5 metres tall. From the mid-1800s until the ...

Biography

David Alexander Fife was born at Kincardine, Scotland in 1805. In 1820, his family immigrated to Otonabee Township in

Peterborough County Peterborough County is a county and census division located in Southern Ontario, Canada. The county seat is the City of Peterborough, which is independent of the county. The southern section of the county is mix of agriculture, urban and lakef ...

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...

, and took up farming.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

Development of Red Fife

In the early 1840s, the farmers in the Midlands area of

Canada West The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

—the new name for Upper Canada after the 1840 Act of Union—grew a winter wheat variety known as Siberian. It had been introduced to Canada in the hope that it would survive the severe Canadian winters. But the Siberian wheat variety was susceptible to

rust Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH) ...

and its yields were low.
Early History of Wheat Growing in Canada David Fife wrote to a friend in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

asking for samples of good seed wheat. His friend obtained a sample of wheat off a ship from Danzig, Prussia, (now

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

, Poland) and sent it to Fife. As it came to Fife's hand just before spring seeding time, and, not knowing whether it was a fall or spring variety, Mr. Fife decided to sow a part of it that spring, and wait for the result. It proved to be fall wheat as most of it never ripened. Three ears, however, which grew from a single grain did reach maturity. Two possibilities exist: that the single grain from which the three heads grew was an accidental hybrid, or that the single seed kernel was a spring wheat variety mixed in with a winter wheat strain. In any case, Fife preserved the seeds from the ears that had matured, sowed them the following year where they grew to be entirely free of rust. Fife continued to carefully husband the seeds harvested, and by 1848 had accumulated 240 bushels of the new variety which he distributed to his neighbors for seed. By 1860,

had supplanted all other varieties in use in Canada. Red Fife soon became the standard variety of "hard spring" wheat in North America and by the end of the 19th century was widely considered as the world's best spring wheat because of its resistance to rust, early maturing, high productivity and excellent milling and baking qualities.

Legacy

A stone cairn honouring David Fife was erected in 1964 of out of ordinary field stone, with a brass plate inscribed with a brief history of Red Fife, on Ontario Highway #7, eight miles to the east of

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

. The official unveiling was carried out by Donald Fife, a descendant. This plaque was later moved to Lang Pioneer Village Museum at Keene, Ontario. Red Fife wheat would later be used as the male parent by Dominion Agriculturalist Charles Saunders in development of

Marquis wheat The Marquis bread wheat cultivar was developed by a team led by Dr. William Saunders, Director, Dominion Experimental Farms, between 1892 and 1909. It is a cross between Red Fife (male parent) and Hard Red Calcutta (female parent). It was ...

, a

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

that for a time in the early 20th century was grown on 90% of prairie farms.

References

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
* McNicholl, Martin K
Fife, David
The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2008-05-29.
Early History of Wheat Growing in Canada
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Retrieved on 2008-05-29.

Ontario's Historical Plaques. Retrieved on 2013-06-25. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fife, David 1805 births 1877 deaths Canadian farmers Scottish emigrants to pre-Confederation Ontario Immigrants to Upper Canada People from Kincardine, Fife