FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE 33 



ginning to the subject of wheat cultivation. The 

 possibilities of grain transportation, now so familiar, 

 were then not only beyond conjecture but beyond 

 belief. A prediction of them would have been classed 

 with the story of Aladdin's lamp. It was doubtless 

 supposed that the main reliance for wheat supply 

 must be the home fields. Earnest efforts were accord- 

 ingly made to get the best and most manageable and 

 productive seed wheat. The records prior to 1800 

 have mention of several distributions of seed-wheat 

 among members of the society. A favorite seems to 

 have been the Early Virginia wheat, produced from 

 a native seed, and on one occasion $45 was paid from 

 the funds for a quantity of it. Samples were also 

 obtained from Connecticut, New Hampshire, Quebec 

 and Rio Janeiro. Later, within a brief period, samples 

 were received of wheat grown in Italy, Egypt, South- 

 ern Russia, Siberia, Patagonia, Chili and at the Cape 

 of Good Hope, in each case sufficient for testing by 

 cultivation. Several of these were brought by com- 

 manders of vessels of the United States navy. Other 

 seeds of various kinds were procured from distant 

 places and distributed. A special importation from 

 England of several varieties of potatoes was made. In 

 1792 the potato had not gone into common use in this 

 country, but it was beginning to be appreciated, and 

 before the close of the century it superceded the 

 turnip, which had been the chief vegetable on the 

 farmers' table. Hope was generally entertained in 

 this and other States that silk production might profit- 

 ably be followed. Accordingly, mulberry seeds in 

 considerable quantity v/ere distributed and premiums 

 offered for mulberry cultivation. Among the seeds 

 brought from foreign ports by vessels of the navy were 

 Persian rye and "pompion" seeds. 



