The Way It Was
In 1916, Albertan Charles S. Noble ruled the planet in harvesting wheat
In October 1916, Charles Sherwood Noble of Nobleford, Alta., earned the title of World Wheat King.
In 1903, C.S. Noble relocated from North Dakota to Claresholm, N.W.T. (now Alberta), where he had a small farm and operated businesses and agencies in town. In 1910, when the new northsouth rail line 20 miles east of Claresholm was partially opened, Noble purchased a large tract of land near the present town of Nobleford. He continued to purchase more and more land, and by 1916, he was farming more than 10,000 acres. During those good years, he raised record crops of oats and flax.
In 1915, he heard of a record wheat yield of 51,210 bushels on 1,000 acres of dryland in Colfax County, Washington State. In an attempt to beat that record, he sowed 1,606 acres (2.5 sections) of hard spring “Marquis” wheat on his Nobleford farm. Everything came together: quality seed, ideal seedbed and moisture reserves, perfect rainfall, little wind and an abundance of sunshine.
Canadian agronomist Charles Saunders began developing the Marquis wheat variety in 1904. It is believed that Marquis allowed the successful agricultural development of the Canadian West and was the wheat that won two world wars.
Back in Nobleford, a snowfall on October 1 and midmonth rains delayed harvest only briefly. The region’s local daily newspaper,
The Lethbridge Herald,
carried numerous articles in its October issues of Noble’s attempt to beat the Colfax record. Many other farms in Alberta reported yields of 40, 50 and 60 bushels on smaller acreages. On October 25, an estimated crowd of 150 visitors from near and far saw the last load taken off, establishing the new record. Even the CPR was there to take moving pictures of the event. The total production on the 1,000acre tract was 54,395 bushels. Of the 1,606 acres sown, the aver- age was 53.30 bushels per acre. The record may still stand for dryland production and no application of fertilizers or water.
A shortage of manpower caused by the First World War required Noble to use efficient equipment and techniques that needed much less crop manhandling. Notably, he used a couple of Stewart sheaf loaders manufactured in Winnipeg.
Because of the war and untimely crop failures in other parts of the world, there was a huge demand for Canada to provide food. This prompted Noble in 1917 to add another 20,000 unbroken acres in the Cameron Ranch area, some 35 miles east of his Nobleford holdings and north of the Oldman River. INNOVATION
To bring the new holdings into production, he broke the Prairie sod using eight to ten steam engines, each with an eightor ten-bottom plow
working 24 hours a day. To maintain the workings of his now 30,000 acres, he had a huge staff, plus 600 to 700 head of workhorses and mules. All went reasonably well—except the price of grain fell drastically after the war and Noble carried a heavy debt. The banks foreclosed in about 1922, but Noble was hired by those same banks to sell the foreclosed property. Using his sales commissions, he was able to salvage his original holdings near Nobleford and his family home in town.
By 1928, he was again farming on a large scale before the “dirty thirties” arrived. In 1936, because of the devastating erosion by wind and reduced rains, Noble set to work developing and building the Noble blade, a wide-sweep cultivator that retained much of the crop residues on top of the soil (trash cover). Cultivation with the Noble blade curbed soil wind erosion and held precious moisture. This led him to yet another venture: Starting in 1936, now 63 years old, he manufactured and personally marketed his equipment throughout Western Canada and the United States. Around 1950, the factory introduced a high-clearance seed drill that could successfully place seed through trashy field conditions left by wide-sweep cultivators, which had hindered the operation of regular seed drills. Noble equipment was marketed throughout the North American Great Plains, and was even sold to Russia and Australia.
In 1957, cancer took the life of the 84-yearold farmer, entrepreneur, innovator, salesman and promoter Charles Sherwood Noble. Just before his death, he was bestowed with the Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE).