THE WHEAT CTTLTURIST. 239 



of seed, brought from a considerable distance on every 

 side, to the extent of hundreds of miles. But, it was 

 from seed on which I could depend. My favorite 

 change is, from a cold, chalky, district to a mild, loamy 

 soil. In a majority of cases, a change is good on every 

 soil, and under every variation of climate." 



Vitality of Seed Wheat. 



The old story in relation to the wonderful vitality of 

 wheat taken from the coffin of an Egyptian mummy, 3,000 

 years old, has-been reiterated by the press, until intelli- 

 gent farmers will not give it any kind of credence. It 

 is sheer folly to repeat such an improbability ! I do not 

 believe a word of it. (See p. 107, Egyptian Wheat.) 

 Wheat was undoubtedly taken from a mummy ; but 

 there was not a shadow of evidence, that the grain was 

 3,000 years old. Indeed, the evidence is conclusive, 

 that some shrewd Arab — as they understand how eager 

 white and civilized people are to obtain curiosities — put 

 the package of wheat in the mummy, only a few years 

 previous, as seeds of maize, a plant of recent origin and 

 known in America before it was ever seen in the Old 

 World, were found in the package. 



Scientific men in Europe, have made numerous ex- 

 periments to test the vitality of seeds, all of which tend 

 to show, that cereal grain will lose its vitality in a few 

 successive years. 



In the year 1840 the British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, appointed a committee to investi- 

 gate the length of time during which seeds retain their 

 vitality. The committee consisted of Professors Dan- 

 bury, Henslow, and Lindley. They made sixteen re- 



