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thus, when a considerable number of wheat plants perish, the chess plants 

 which remain, not only actually bear a greater proportion to the wheat, 

 than in other parts of the same field not injured ; but the difference does 

 not end here, these plants have now a more extensive pasture for their 

 roots, and a greater share of light for their leaves, than if they had vig- 

 orous wheat plants to contend with, they consequently grow more luxu- 

 riantly, throw up more numerous stems, and cover a greater space of 

 ground. The chess thus not only actually bears a greater proportion to 

 the wheat, but it seems more abundant, the number of plants greater 

 than in parts where the wheat has been less killed or weakened by frost ; 

 hence I suspect the conclusion has been arrived at, that wheat, by the 

 action of frost, has been changed into chess. 



5th. I have carefully taken up many plants of chess, and I have usu- 

 ally found the husks of the seed from which they had sprung ; these I 

 have examined by the aid of a good lens, and they appeared to me in all 

 cases, the seed-coats of chess and not of wheat. 



6th. Where I am is new land ; wheat was first sown here in the fall of 

 1849, and as chess is not indigenous to the soil, nor yet introduced into 

 the land by manure, I have, in the last three seasons, had a favorable 

 opportunity for observing the effects of frost on the wheat crop, and 

 whether the appearance of chess depends on the severity of the weather, 

 or the injury the wheat plant has sustained during Avinter, or whether 

 the quantity grown is not due rather to other circumstances, under our 

 control. In the first year or so, fanning mills were somewhat scarce here, 

 much wheat was, consequently, indifferently cleaned, and in some instances, 

 sown in that state ; others had taken extra pains to procure clean seed, 

 and two or three patches were raised from wheat gleaned in the field ; 

 in some cases, wheat was sown after wheat, and from the same sample, 

 on newly broken-up land adjoining. The proportion of chess, I found 

 in all cases, all other circumstances being similar, was greatest where 

 wheat followed wheat, because, in addition to the chess sown with the 

 wheat, there was a considerable quantity of self-sown seed already in the 

 land, from the previous year's crop. In one instance, some very clean 

 purchased seed had been sown, it was put through the mill, till it seemed 

 free from chess ; the seed not being sufficient, a strip was sown with other 

 wheat, which had been merely chaffed ; the former produced a compara- 

 tively pure crop, the latter a nearly equal proportion of chess, rye and 

 wheat. 



