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ON THE ALLEGED TRANSMUTATION OF WHEAT INTO 



CHESS. 



BY JOHN TOWNLEY, MOUNDVILLE, MARQUETTE CO., WIS. 



As a set-oflF to the toil and inconveniences of one sort or another which 

 must be encountered for a few years by those who hew out for themselves 

 a home in the back woods, I thought there were at least three advanta- 

 ges which they would possess over farmers in older settled States. The 

 cost of the land would be much less ; they would have a virgin soil to 

 cultivate, whose fertility, with judicious management, might be main- 

 tained, if not improved; and as most of the weeds which infest our crops 

 interfere with their growth, and diminish their produce, are not natural to 

 the soil but introduced plants, I considered, that by careful culture from 

 the first, it would be no difficult matter to keep them within due bounds. 

 The first crop of wheat I raised, convinced me, however, that so far as 

 wedds were concerned I had been reckoning somewhat without my host ; 

 for when the crop came into ear, I was mortified to find a considerable 

 proportion of it consisted of a worthless grass, which my neighbors told 

 me was called chess or cheat. Its appearance in the crop they assured 

 me was no fault of mine, as the wheat had been changed into chess by 

 the maoic of frost. This view of the case afforded me small comfort : I 

 saw reasons to doubt the accuracy of this explanation then, and my sub- 

 sequent experience has convinced me, that it is a most erroneous and 

 mischievous doctrine to believe in. If I had not abundant opportunities 

 for knowing how tenaciously this opinion is held by many, I should 

 scarcely have thought it necessary to trouble you with my reasons for 

 concluding, that no such change ever takes place. " What can't be cured, 

 must be endured ;" but let a man be once persuaded, that chess does not 

 belong to this category of evils, and endeavors will then be made to get 

 rid of it. 



Wheat, in this climate, appears to have too many enemies to contend 

 with, over which we have no control, ever to make it a very remunerative 

 crop, it is therefore the more imperatively necessary that we should sub- 

 due an evil like this within our power, which lessens the quantity and 

 degrades the quality of our wheat crops — more especially when this may 

 be accomplished without the expenditure of much time or money. 

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