AGRICULTURAL TEXT-BOOK. 



Seven thousand kernels have been counted growing from one root ; 

 enough to seed three hundred acres thickly the third year, were it culti 

 vated. They are also very difficult to destroy, passing through animals 

 and fowls without losing the germinative power. It was formerly as 

 plentiful in England as it is with us, but by care in sowing clean seed, 

 it is now all but exterminated. There is a notion among some farmers 

 that &quot;wheat turns into chess ;&quot; but this is wholly opposed to all facts 

 and analogies ; and the belief may be classed among the superstitions of 

 the dark ages that still linger in our profession. (See Patent Office Re 

 ports, 1849, p. 455; 1851, p. 650.) By sowing wheat seed peifectly clean 

 of chess, it soon disappears. It is chiefly troublesome by drawing the 

 nourishment from the growing wheat, and overpowering it ; arid injur 

 ing the flour. When crushed, it is good food for horses and poultry, and 

 if boiled, for hogs. 



Pigeon-weed, (c,) has been introduced from Europe. It is an annual 

 plant &quot;slender, hoary with m in nte oppressed hairs, somewhat branched ; 

 leaves lanceolate, acutish, nearly veinless ; racemes few-flowered, the 

 lower flowers remote ; corolla (yellowish white) not longer than the 

 calyx.&quot; (Gray.) 



This weed appoars to be confined to certain soils, such as in K&quot;ew 

 York are known by the name of Marcellus Shales, and in Michigan, as 

 Oak Openings, and Burr Oak Plains. In this latter State, it is found in 

 the Interior, while it yet seems to be unknown in the heavy clays, form 

 ing a belt around the Peninsula. Where it becomes plentiful it is ex 

 ceedingly injurious to the wheat crop. It is not above thirty }ears 

 since it was introduced into New York, and it has now spread wherev 

 er it finds a congenial soil. The peculiarities of the character and habit 

 of this weed consist (a,) in the hard shell with which its seed or nut ia 

 covered ; (b,) in the time at which it comes up and ripens its seed ; (c,) 

 in the superficial way in which its roots spread. The seed is so hard 

 that it passes uninjured through cattle and birds, and lies for years in the 

 ground without perishing. It grows very little in spring, but shoots up 

 and ripens in the Fall, and its roots spread through the surface soil on 

 ly, and exhaust the food by which the young wheat should be nourished. 

 It is said to be so prolific as to increase more than two hundred fold an 

 nually. When it has once got into the land, two or three successive 

 crops of wheat will give it entire possession of the soil. In Yates 

 County, N. Y., the seeds are crushed with linseed, for the oil they con 

 tain, which is about 4 Ibs. per bushel ; and for the addition which the 

 husk makes to the oil cake. The only mode of exterminating it is, 

 when slight, to pick it out of the growing wheat by hand ; and when 



