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From His Excellency De Witt Clinton, LL.D. Go- 

 vernor of the State of New York, and President 

 of the Literary and Philosophical Society there. 



Sir, Utica, July 18, 1817. 



A few days ago a farmer stopt with his waggon 

 at a house in the village of Rome, about fifteen 

 miles from this place. A respectable gentleman, 

 who was conversing with him on business, observed 

 among some hay, lying in the waggon, a few stalks 

 of a strange plant, inquired what they were ; and on 

 being told that they were wild wheat, and were cut 

 with common grass in a beaver meadow and on a wet 

 soil in the town of Western in this county, he took 

 out a few grains, and gave them to an honest and 

 industrious farmer in his vicinity, who planted them 

 in his garden. The second crop produced about a 

 peck of grain, which yielded upwards of twenty 

 bushels the third year. Wheat of the same species 

 has also been found in a wild state in a swamp co- 

 vered with trees near Rome. It is said to differ from 

 the common wheat in a variety of respects, — in the 

 compactness of the stalk, in the largeness of its 

 leaves, in the peculiar position of beards at the apex 

 of the head, which is in all other respects bald, and 

 in its superior height, being considerably taller. 

 Since the comparative scarcity of snow, which for- 

 merly served as a protection against the attacks of 

 frost, our wheat has suffered severely by what the 

 farmers denominate winter-killing. Our ground 



