PRIZE ESSAY 



ON THE CULTIVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF WHEAT. 



BY EDWARD MASON, OF DETROIT. 



Many valuable essays have been written on tlieso subjects, and still 

 there is room for more — as every passing year adds some important fact 

 to the records of experience. 



Wheat has been cultivated for food, from the earliest ages. In the 

 scriptures we have an account of the Israelites, in times of scarcity, ob- 

 taining a supply of this grain from Egypt. 



The Egyptians have been celebrated as growers of wheat from time 

 immemorial, and their principal manure has been the mud left by the 

 overflowing of the Nile. I have seen largo quantities of Egyptian 

 wheat; it is a largo grain, but the ancient mode of threshing, or "tread- 

 ing out the corn," with oxen or hoi-ses, being still practiced in Egypt, it 

 is considerably damaged by being mixed with filth of every kind. 



The wheat plant does not exist in a wild state, and several circum- 

 stances tend to prove that it is a species of c/rass, brought to its present 

 improved state by continued cultivation. 



A French botanist has lately discovered that wheat can be produced 

 by the careful cultivation of a grass called Egilop?, which grows on the 

 coasts of the Mediterranoaa ; some of the most eminent naturalists of 

 France have tested the discovery, and found it to be correct; and Dr. 

 Lindley, the celebrated English botanist, haa endorsed the opinion. 



This discovery may seem to favor the doctrine of transmutation, and 

 the advocates of that theory may endeavor to prove by means of this 

 experiment, that " wheat turns into chess;" but they should recollect 

 that there are many kinds of grass which tear a cloeer resemblance to 

 wheat than chess does. 

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