SECRETARY'S REPORT. 61 



the introduction and propagation of this worthless pest to our 

 grain fields. It has been heralded in the papers, in connection 

 with the names of distinguished friends of agriculture, with the 

 earnest hope that it might receive extended trials. Monstrous 

 prices have heen charged and paid by the unsuspecting farmer 

 for its seed, in many cases four and five dollars a bushel, a 

 pledge being exacted that it should not be allowed to go to seed, 

 for a reason, probably, which will shortly appear. Committees 

 of agricultural societies have been invited to examine and report 

 upon it ; and in a letter now lying before me, the disinterested 

 propagator very kindly offers to put up ten barrels of bromus 

 seed for flOO, saying, that " of course the earliest applicants will 

 be sure of obtaining till all is gone, which would scarcely give a 

 barrel to a State. * * Years must elapse before the country 

 can be supplied as it now is with Herds-grass and clover seed. 

 My offer invites co-operation and participation in the profits and 

 pleasures now available " — for taking advantage of the honest 

 credulity of the public? 



A quantity of bromus seed was sent to the State Farm for tlie 

 purpose of experiment, with a letter with directions to sow with 

 clover in the spring of 1855. The crop was ciit Avhile yet green, 

 and before the grass had developed sufficiently to distinguish it 

 with certainty. This present year (1856) directions were given 

 to let it stand later in the season. While engaged in the collec- 

 tion and study of specimens in the course of the summer, I 

 gathered samples of this grass when it was still immature, tlie 

 spikclets having very much the appearance indicated in Fig. 

 51. Without giving it a very close examination at the time, I 

 pronounced it the bromus arvensis, which at that stage of its 

 growth it very much resembles. A few days after, I was aston- 

 ished to see it develop into Chess (bromus secalimis.^ This 

 was the first ripe specimen of Willard's bromus I had seen. I 

 examined it with care with a strong magnifying glass, and to 

 avoid the possibility of mistake, I submitted specimens of it to 

 Prof. Gray, of Camljridge, and to Prof. Dewey, of Rochester, 

 New York, both of whom, after examination, pronounced 

 genuine chess. 



But Mr. Willard having quoted from the report of a commit 

 tee of an agricultural society in which it was said that if a "jury 

 of cows should confirm the opinion of Mr. Willard as to the 



