FARMERS' REGISTER— LIVE AND DEAD WEIGHT OF CATTLE, &c. IG3 



ON THE SUPPOSED TRANSMUTATION OF 

 WHEAT TO CHEAT. 



Far the Farmers' Register. 



The statement made by a correspondent of 

 Orange county, N. C. at page 60 of the Fanners' 

 Register, is a very fair examjile of the manner in 

 which many farmers allow themselves to be de- 

 ceived. The facts were these: soon after a hill- 

 side field had been sown with wheat, a heavy rain 

 Avashed down some of the loose earth, together 

 with some of tlie grain, over a strip of timotliy 

 meadow at the base of the hill; after which the 

 grain so washed down, grew vigorously; but at 

 harvest, nothing was seen except cheat, and the 

 inference drawn by your correspondent is, that all 

 the wheat turned into cheat. To me however, 

 the chain of reasoning appears to be very defec- 

 tive. 



In the first place he has not shown that the seed 

 V.''heat contained no cheat amongst it; and posi- 

 tive evidence of such fact woidd be requisite to 

 warrant the conclusion that he has drawn. Now 

 unless extraorchnary care and pains have been 

 taken for that express and particular purpose, we 

 have a right to conclude just the contrary; for 

 what fl^rmers commonly call clean seed wheat, has 

 been proved in various instances, to contain from 

 four to niore than twenty grains of cheat in every 

 handful. Assuming therefore, as we have aright 

 to do on this occasion, that his seed wheat was 

 not fi'ee from cheat, it follows that the whole aflair 

 can be easily and satisfactorily explained without 

 referring to the doctrine of transmutation. It ap- 

 pears tiiat the meadow was watered during the 

 winter, which is sutFicient to account lor the disap- 

 pearance of the wheat; and the cheat being a 

 much hardier plant, kept the sole and undisputed 

 possession* 



He has said irideed that ''every bunch [of wheat] 

 proved to be cheat;" but I cannot supjiose that he 

 marked them; and without closer observations than 

 are generally made in such cases, he would not be 

 able to discriminate between the bunches of wheat 

 and of cheat that appeared in the fall; neither 

 would he be likely to miss the former in the spring. 



He informs us that the hill-side was "rich," and 

 this circumstance will assist in explaining why 

 "not a single heaJ of cheat was discovered among 

 the wheat." Cheat though a hardier plant, is ge- 

 nerally overshadowed and partially smothered by 

 wheat when the latter is not winter-killed, but 

 grows closely together; and that toeed under such 

 circumstances, not being conspicuous, is common- 

 ly overlooked, so that farmers conclude there is 

 none in their stubbles, when there is more than 

 enough to seed the whole ground. Cheat is 

 a very variable plant in regard to size: I have 

 seen it scarcely four inches high with only a soli- 

 tary seed on the top, and I have seen it four feet 

 high, with between two and three thousand seeds. 



Cayuga county, A. Y. 



A FARMER. 



TO PREVENT THE SPROUTING OF STORE 

 ONIONS DURING THE WINTER. 



A|)|)ly a heated iron for a few seconds to the 

 nozzle of the onion Avhence the roots protruded, 

 and it will be an efl'ectual mode of" preserving 

 tliem. — Gardmer''3 Magazim. 



ON THE LIVE AND DEAD WEIGHTS OF CATTLE. 



From tlic [Britisli] Farmer's Magazine. 



iS7r — Having heanl much in favor of a work 

 Avhich has recently issued from the press of the 

 Society for Diliueing Useful Knowledge, entitled, 

 The Farmer^s Scries, I purchased that portion of 

 it which treats on Bi-itish cattle, and on reading it 

 I met witli a statement in the first page oflhe 

 ninth number, of the proportion Avliich Ihe dead 

 weights of cattle, sheep, and calves, bore to their 

 live weight, so completely at variance Avith every 

 experiment I had made in mj endeavors to ascer- 

 tain their true proportion; and having recently con- 

 versed with so many extensive tanners and gra- 

 ziers, and not a fcAV butcliers, who had adopted 

 the commonly received opinion that the dead 

 weights were about two-thirds of the live weights 

 of fUirly fed beasts, sheep, and calves; that I am 

 induced to lay before the public, through the me- 

 dium of your valuable and widely-circulated Ma- 

 gazine, a. short account of the live and dead 

 weights of a few animals which were weighed 

 either under my immediate inspection, or by per- 

 sons on whose accuracy I can place implicit con- 

 fidence. 



In laying these experiments before the public, it 

 is not my object or Avish to cast any slur on this 

 useful publication; from Avhich I have derived 

 much valuable information^ and AA'hich, in my 

 opinion, merits a place in the library of every ag- 

 riculturist; but solely tor the purpose of guarding 

 my brother graziers against a disappointment 

 which they Avill certainly experience, if they weigh 

 their beasts alive before they send them to market, 

 and estimating their dead Aveights by the rule laid 

 doAvn in this Avork, expect to receive a price equi- 

 valent to those estimated Aveighls. 



In the present depressed state of agriculture it 

 is highly essential to ever}^ farmer to be able to 

 ascertain, as nearly as possible, the Aveight of tho 

 animal he has to dispose of, so that he may be ac- 

 quainted Avith its real A'aliie; and the best mode he 

 can adopt to ascertain this is hy AA'eigliing it alive, 

 Avhich, if an ox or cow, can be done on the ma- 

 chines that are attached to most of the turnpike 

 gates, at a trifiing expense. If a sheep or calf^^ — 

 by getting a piece of stout canvas rather more 

 than a yard long, and about tAventy inches Avide, 

 and soAA'ing at each end a piece of strong Avood 

 about two feet in length; from the centre of each 

 piece of AA'Ood a small rope is attached — pass the 

 cauA'as round the body of the sheep or calf, and 

 suspend it by the ropes either to a steelya,rd or to 

 the arm of a scales-beam, when the weight may 

 be easily ascertained. 



I ha\-e also found Carey's Scale, which I have 

 used for many }"ears, to be wery accurate; I haA'e 

 rarely found it to be 20 lbs. out in the Aveight of a 

 beast, and ofien knoAAm it to tell Avithin 7 or 8 lbs., 

 and in one instance lately it gaA-e Avithin 5 lbs. of 

 the AA-eio-ht of a heifer of tweiit y-eight score. As I 

 invariably sell all the beasts^ sheep, and calves, 

 Avdiich my butcher purchases liom me, by Aveight, 

 and haA-e also the opportunity of measuring those 

 Avhich he purchases elsewhere, and of afterwards 

 seeing them AA^eighed, I haA^c had the means of 

 trying the meritsof the scale pretty largelj", and 

 can confidentl}^ assert, that it^ the beasts are mea- 

 sured Avith propel- accuracy the scale will giA-e 

 AA-ithin a fcAv veiy few pounds of the real Aveight. 



