DAVID FIFE   1805-1877

David Fife was truly a pioneer, arriving in Canada in 1820 with his family.  By 1840, so concerned was he about declining wheat yields that he went to Scotland seeking a rust-resistant variety.  Two years later he tried again by writing to a friend at a seed house in Glasgow.  His friend sent out a few seeds that arrived on a boat from Gdansk, Poland.

These seeds led to the creation of the famous Red Fife variety, a very interesting story indeed and the subject of several books.  One of these was published by Lang Pioneer Village in 1992.

The first crop of Gdansk seeds contained five heads that appeared decidedly better.  They were rust-free, an extremely important trait.  This seed was multiplied year after year and by 1848 was being grown by many other local growers.  By 1851 this strain had spread throughout Ontario and into several US states, its rust resistance and milling quality highly prized.

At David Fife’s death in 1877 and until about 1915 Red Fife was still the paramount variety in the US and Canada.  Red Fife had by then been crossed with another variety to form Marquis, a variety that for several years dominated wheat acreage, as had Red Fife.

That he could do this on his own, long before experimental farms existed is indeed the mark of a true innovator.  David Fife was inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1963.

Nomination by Peterborough County Soil and Crop Improvement Association, 2015