408 



FARMERS' REGISTER— CHEAT CONTROVERSY. 



jugglers actually manufacture Avith, and draw out 

 of their mouths, countless yards of riband, and fry 

 good pancakes in their hats. All the other publi- 

 cations that I have seen, have been the mere con- 

 clusions of the writers, from results favorable to 

 their own preconceived notions: which they them- 

 selves choose to ascribe to causes that might have 

 had no more to do with them, than the shape of 

 last year's clouds. All that could certainly be pro- 

 nounced true of these comnumications, was that 

 cheat came up where the writers did not expect it; 

 and that they supposed, irom circumstances appear- 

 ing to them, but to nobody else, conclusive, it pro- 

 ceeded from wheat ])lants converted into cheat by 

 some incomprehensible process, utterly at variance 

 with all the known laws of the vegetable kingdom. 

 I again repeat, and challenge denial, that no ex- 

 periment heretotbre published, except that of your- 

 self and Iriends, can be called any thing but an 

 ex parte one; and such as was totally deficient in 

 that particularit}', minuteness, and accuracy of ob- 

 servation which are indispensably necessary to 

 settle any such long controverted point. The 

 champions of each opinion have utterly eschewed 

 the admirable "non-committal ]}oIicy" — they have 

 too long been decidedly arrayed against each other 

 on opposite sides, to yield to any tiling less than a 

 series of facts which can be neither gotten over, 

 under, nor around. These I fully believe would 

 be furnished by the experiment v.liich I am about 

 to suggest, if any [lersons could be prevailed upon 

 to make it: it is hoped that several may, as neither 

 the expense nor labor would be worth regarding 

 in a matter about which so many persons have 

 deeply interested themselves. 



The experiment I would suggest, is that two or 

 three gentlemen of Avell known respectability, 

 should each select three or tiiur dozen grains of 

 the best wheat they can find. Let these be planted 

 in well prepared laud of good quality — say in two 

 rows one loot apart, and the grains at regular in- 

 tervals of four or five inches, so as to admit of 

 hand weeding. Mark each spot carefully with a 

 small stick, and as soon as the blades appear above 

 the ground, scratch away the earth on one side 

 until each grain i.': discovered, which will certainly 

 show whether the supposed wheat blades really 

 spring from the deposited Avheat grains, or from 

 something else. This being determined, let the 

 earth be carefully replaced, and the now ascertained 

 wheat blades be daily examined, that the wonder- 

 ful transmiitation may not steal a march upon the 

 examiners, but may be detected, (if it takes place 

 at all) at the very moment of its commencement. 

 But as the grazing down of the blades is generally 

 deemed necessary to insure the metamorphosis, 

 and the bill of a goose, (1 mean nothing invidious, 

 my good sir,) has been thought particularly effica- 

 cious in accomplishing the marvellous change, let 

 as many geese as necessary, be constantly grazed 

 upon one half of the rows until late in the spring, 

 and taken off only in time to enable the plants to 

 throw out each its own head, or heads. Now 

 as the blades of wheat and cheat are known to 

 differ from each other, nearly or quite as much as 

 the grain does, if the process of watching the 

 blades, not only during the whole goose-grazing 

 process, but until the heads appear, be continued 

 without a day's neglect, it would be impossible 

 for any change in the nature and appearance of 



any of the plants to take place without imme- 

 diate detection. 



If any gentlemen shall be induced to make the 

 experiment just suggested, and in the manner 

 above stated, and will then proclaim in your paper, 

 under their own proper signatures, that the goose- 

 grazed wheat actually turned into cheat, I for one, 

 infidel as I have always been in regard to the con- 

 vertibility of wheat into cheat, will publicly ac- 

 knowledge the abandonment of my unbelief on 

 this subject. I shall, however, not cease to won- 

 der as long as I live, at such a marvellous depar- 

 ture fi'om all the known laws of vegetable physi- 

 ology. Indeed, I should not be more amazed 

 Avere I to see realized a boast Avhich I once heard 

 in regard to the fertility of the Opelousas soil. Of 

 this the boaster affirmed, that you might plant in 

 it the over night, sow's tails, and by the middle of 

 next day would find growing on the ends of them, 

 fat pigs, large enougli to make good roasters. 



J. M. G. 



[Our friend and highly esteemed correspondent, J. 

 M. G., must pardon us for hinting that his remarks 

 are liable to an objection very similar to that which he 

 so justly charges to others. His tone of censure, it is 

 true, is altogether different from that of the seemingly 

 angry disputants whom he condemns; but his satire, 

 however free from ill-nature or unkindness of feeling, 

 may be as keenly felt as serious denunciation. Some 

 persons would be more unwilling to be laughed at, 

 than to be abused. But even if either of these courses 

 were proper in discussing disputed points in agricul- 

 ture, they would be misplaced in the "cheat contro- 

 versy" — for though our own opinions are as decidedly 

 opposed as .T. M. G's., to the possibility of transmuta,- 

 tion, yet we must admit that that side of the question 

 is maintained by many persons, whose intelligence and 

 experience claim and deserve, for their opinions, the 

 most respectful attention. 



The experiment proposed by J. M. G. as a means of 

 deciding this dispute, seems far from likely to prove 

 satisfactory. The strongest advocates of the trans- 

 mutation doctrine, would expect a change rarely to 

 proceed from good grains of wheat: and therefore if 

 such experiments were repeated twenty times, without 

 a plant of cheat being produced, it would still leave 

 the change as much to be believed in as before. In 

 the experiment reported in Vol. I, (p. 83) and which 

 is referred to above with commendation, every knoicn 

 circumstance was brought into operation, which is 

 charged to be a cause for the change of wheat to cheat. 

 If that trial was not severe enough, let others be made 

 more so — and those who contend for the change ought 

 to have the liberty of choosing, and of making full use 

 of every means for producing it. Permitting the most 

 unlimited choice of means, and only requiring that 

 every fact shall be strictly observed and proved, we 

 hereby offer a premium of a complete set of the Far- 

 mers' Register from the commencement to the end of 

 its publication, to whomsoever shall trace the progress 

 of as many as three grains of wheat to as many perfect 

 plants of cheat. Should the premium be claimed, we 

 shall not judge of its validity, but will submit the 

 matter for decision to others, the most competent to 

 decide impartially and correctly as to the value of the 



