GENESEE COUNTRY AGRICULTURAL NOTICES. 83 



driver to the oxen. In every case, a driver was employed with 

 oxen, and horses generally riden by boys when in the plough, 

 &quot;which, I supposed, was owing to their being little accustomed 

 to this kind of labour. 



I had observed the wheat crops of America abounding with 

 a species of grass passing by the name of chess, which I ima 

 gine to be the Bromus secalinus of botanists, and which I have 

 seen in the wheat crops of Surrey, England, and south of Ire 

 land. A passenger between Canandaigua and Genesee, stated, 

 that chess was reverted wheat, and originated from an in 

 clement season, or bad seed, an opinion which I found pretty 

 general in the States and Canada. This doctrine w T as made 

 known to me by letters in the Genesee Farmers newspaper, 

 published at Rochester, numbers of which I received in Scot 

 land, but it is so different to my observation and reflection, 

 that I told the passenger, I would as soon expect a horse to 

 become a pig, as wheat chess. From extensive observation 

 in remote parts of America, I have not a doubt of chess being 

 indigenous to the soil, and hence its growth amongst wheat 

 crops, where the farmer did not sow its seeds. 



Akin to the notion of wheat reverting to chess, is that of 

 the same grain changing to darnel (Lolium temuluctum), 

 lately advanced in Scotland, where the plant is provincially 

 called sleepies. Botanists assign original types for cultivated 

 plants, but farmers seem not to be agreed about that of wheat. 

 Americans may arrange themselves on the side of chess, 

 Scotchmen that of darnel, without throwing light on the sub 

 ject. A plant cannot change from one species to another, or 

 the vegetable kingdom would pass into confusion. Wheat, 

 chess, and darnel, are distinct species. 



Having heard much of the Genesee flats, I proceeded to 

 call on their owner, on arriving at Genesee. Mr Wades- 

 worth had gone to a distant part of the country, one of his 

 sons being the only member of the family at home, and who 

 had rode out after breakfast. On calling a second time, the 

 young gentleman pointed out the way to the flats, where he 

 said he would join us in an hour afterwards. 



The Genesee flats belonging to Mr Wadesworth, are 

 rich alluvial soil, ornamented with aged trees, deposited in 



