1857.] Does Wheat Turn to Chess f 457 



DOES WHEAT TURX TO CHESS? 



To settle a controversy on this subject, Benjamin Hodge, of Buf- 

 falo, N. Y., ofiered a premium, some months since, of one liundred 

 dollars, to any one who would demonstrate that wheat would turn to 

 chess — to be awarded under the supervision of the New York State 

 Agricultural Society, and under such rules as a Committee appoint- 

 ed by the Society should prescribe. This premium was lately claim- 

 ed by Samuel Davidson, of G-reece, in this county, who had in his 

 possession, as he believed, the evidence of transmutation. A Com' 

 mittee, appointed by the Society, consisting of Prof. Dewey and 

 L. B. Langworthy, of this city, and J. J. Thomas, of Union 

 Springs, with Col. Johnson, Secretary of the Society, met at Roch- 

 ester recently to examine the evidence. Mr. Thomas is one of the 

 Editors of the Country Gentleman, and we copy the following 

 account of the examination from that excellent paper. 



The experiment to prove transmutation was the following : — " A 

 quantity of earth was passed through a fine sieve, to separate all 

 chess seeds. It was placed in a pan, and several heads of wheat 

 planted in it. When the wheat came up, it was subjected to all the 

 hard treatment that usually produces winter killing, viz : flooding 

 with water, and alternately freezing and thawing for several times. 

 Late in the spring, the whole contents of the pan were removed and 

 set out in open ground. When the plants of wheat threw out their 

 heads, there appeared chess heads also. This mass of wheat and 

 chess plants was brought in and placed before the Committee. — 

 Stalks of chess were shown, the roots of which were found to pro- 

 ceed directly from the planted heads of wheat which yet remained 

 entire, and in some instances they were found to issue from half 

 decayed grains of wheat themselves. This was looked upon as con- 

 clusive. 



The roots were taken by the Committee and first soaked in water, 

 and afterward gently washed, by moving them backwards and for- 

 wards slowly through it. They were then carefully examined by 

 microscopes. The roots of the chess were now perceived to issue, 

 not from near the end of the grain of wheat, as usual on sprouting, 

 but from the side, and in fact from almost any part. Further exam- 

 ination showed that they merely passed through crevices in the de- 



