Si 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 



wheat, however cautiously or correctly stated, is very | 

 likely, without any such design, to produce a very ge- 

 neral anxiety to possess so curious, and apparently so 

 productive a grain. Indeed, as it is there stated that 

 this seed is already offered for sale, at $5 a bushel, it 

 may be considered that this kind of wheat is already 

 elevated in character to the dignity of a regular hum- 

 bug; and as such, is launched on its voyage of experi- 

 ment on the credulity of the agricultural public. 



We happened to have known this kind of wheat, hav- 

 ing witnessed its growth for two successive years, fully 

 thirty years ago — and its subsequent abandonment, as 

 worthless, by the cultivator. He was not sharp enough 

 to think of such a scheme as offering for sale his last 

 crop at $1 the quart; or perhaps he might have spread 

 the kind through the United States as far as has been 

 done with spring wheat — or as may yet be done with 

 Egyptian wheat itself, notwithstanding this attempt to 

 prevent that result. 



The Egyptian wheat (as it was called) which we 

 saw, and observed the after-product of, had several 

 short heads standing out from the bottom of the prin- 

 cipal and upright head, which grew as usual with other 

 kinds; the stalk was of strength proportioned to bear 

 so heavy a burthen of grain. According to the usual 

 mode of calculating, in advance, the productiveness of 

 such things, it was supposed that there must be a pro- 

 digious increase found in a wheat which bore on each 

 stalk three or four small heads, in addition to one laige 

 one. In the earliest sowing, the usual care was taken 

 of the small quantity of seed first obtained; and which 

 care, of itself, serves generally to cause delusion, by 

 showing a very large first product. This seed was 

 drilled, very thin, (so as to make the most of the few 

 seed;) in a garden, on a rich and excellent clay loam. 

 It made two rows, several feet apart, and of some 20 

 yaids in length. The plants were cultivated well, by 

 the hand-hoe, and the growth and product, from so few 

 seed, were considered remarkably fine. The first crop 

 showed genei'ally (if our memory is correct,) the valued 

 peculiarities of the kind, in each stalk having several 

 heads. The whole product was sown broadcast the 

 next autumn, on a rich part of the field for wheat. The 

 The next crop had none but single heads — and ex- 

 hibited no superiority over the common wheat, so as to 

 induce its being sown again. 



The mere novelty of any culture, or, in other words, 

 its being not yet fully tested by experiment, however 

 exciting to curiosity and interest, is but a dubious claim 

 to its being of more worth than other things better 

 known, and already in general use. But even the cha- 

 racter of novelty, of many of these humbugs, though 

 forming their principal, if not sole claim to notice, is 

 itself false; for instead of being?iew, they are old things 

 which have been tried, and found wanting, long ago, 

 and are again brought forward, because of the general ig- 

 norance of any former trial having been made. This 

 applies to both the kinds of wheat spoken of above. 

 Thus, since writing the last paragraph, we found in an 

 old agricultural work, Duhamel's, an account of 

 "Smyrna wheat," which is evidently the "Egyptian;" 

 and making due allowance for the credulity and san- 

 guine expectations of the experimenter, as to its rate 



of product, it does not diff'er materially from our own 

 early and almost forgotten experience, as stated above. 

 Having read the whole of this volume some twenty 

 years ago, of course this account did not then escape 

 notice; but it had been entirely forgotten. The volume 

 was printed in 1762; and the experiments made, com- 

 menced in 1751. The passage is as follows: 



"Smyrna wheat has a very large ear, with several 

 less or collateral ears, growing out of, or round this 

 large one. It requires a great deal more nourishment 

 than the common husbandry will afford; for there its 

 ears grows very little bigger, and produce little, if any, 

 more grain than those of common wheat*. In all pro- 

 bability, it will do much better when cultivated ac- 

 cording to the new method [i. e. of being sown in 

 drills, and cultivated] : but the experiments which have 

 hitherto come to our knowledge are very few. The 

 following is the chief, and indeed the only one worth 

 mentioning. 



M. Le Vayer, one of the masters of the court of re- 

 quests, sowed some of this wheat in 1751, in a small 

 part of his estate at Duviere, in the province of Maine, 

 and had a very good crop. He sowed it again in 1752, 

 in the common way; and though it did not answer near 

 so well this time, it yielded him a third more than com- 

 mon wheat would have done." 



As to spring wheat in general, (which is so entirely 

 new to nearly all who are believers in its superior va- 

 lue,) it is spoken of in numerous European works on 

 agriculture; but by no such authority, that we have met 

 with, is it deemed superior to winter wheat. It is va- 

 luable as a substitute, though admitted to be of less va- 

 lue, when the winter wheat has been killed, or could 

 not be sown before winter; and especially in countries, 

 like England, where wheat furnishes most of the bread 

 of the population. Where a so much better spring 

 grain can be raised as Indian corn, we doubt whether 

 any ground remains for using spring wheat, even thus 

 as a substitute. One of the main grounds of the value 

 of ordinary wheat, is, that it can stand the cold of win • 

 ter, and will produce the more heavily by remaining on 

 the ground through the winter. Oats are not so hardy, 

 and will not generally live through our winters ; and 

 therefore we are obligpd to sow that grain in the spring. 

 But it is well known, that when autumn-sown oats, 

 do withstand the winter's cold, that the crop is far more 

 abundant than any that could be obtained from the 

 same land from spring sowing. It follows, that a kind 

 of oats that could be safely sown in the fall, would be a 

 very valuable acquisition. Winter wheat possesses 

 that hardiness which would cause so much more pro- 

 ductiveness in oats; and yet, many are willing to give 

 up that quality, and expect greatly increased pioducts 

 from a wheat which is sown in the spring, because it is 

 too feeble and tender to stand through the winter. 



Some wheat of peculiar qualities was introduced 

 from Chili about seventeen years ago, and became a 

 subject of considerable interest to many: but it was 

 found to be a spring wheat; and on that account was 

 neglected by all who tried it. Noio, according to the 

 prevailing views, if again offered, it would be preferred 

 for the very reason for which it was then rejected. 

 We have referred above generally to English opin- 



*Count de la Galissoniere, says M. Duhamel, sowed some of It 

 for several j'ears: it produced a little more graiu than common 

 wheat; but the bread that was made of it, was not so good. 



