THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



11 



sooner than timothy, and on that account not 

 Buitable lo be mixed vvilii it iur huy. 



Clover alone malies excellent hay, and is easily 

 cured. Alier it lias been cut a half day, ii' ihc 

 weather is good, it should be turned over, and in 

 two or three hours it will be reaily to put up in 

 shocl<s. The ylioiUs are made live or six leei in 

 diameter and six or seven led high. Tlie lay i 

 should slay in the shocks tvvenly-lour or Ibrty- | 

 eight hours; alter whicii it a-hould be exposed to 

 the sun two or three hours, and it is then ready 

 lo be put into the barn or in stacks. In each 

 stack ol' iwotons there should be put a bushel ol 

 salt, scattered in whilst stacking. IT clover is 

 stacked out exposed to the weather the slacks 

 should be covered with straw or timothy hay. 

 Tlie principal objection to clover hay is, the time 

 of cutting iiiterlering with the corn crop, ll 

 should be cut when about hall the bloom has turn- 

 ed brown. In curing clover it should be turned 

 gently, and should, throughout, be treated with 

 tenderness, as rough treatment wdl make it pan 

 with many ol its leaves and blossoms. 



SAJlCIiL D. MaUTJ.V. 



THE SUPPOSED TRANSMUTATION OF WHEAT 

 TO CHEAT. 



" Agricnla in the Alexandria Gazette, ridi- 

 cules the position taken by 13enj. Hallowell, a dis- 

 tinguished savant of Alexandria in a recent ad- 

 dress belbre the Alexandria Lyceum, that "wheat 

 will degenerate into cheat." He pronounces the 

 idea an absurdity, unsupported by prootj an 

 exploded doctrine, unphilosophical and unscien- 

 tific ; and among other authorities in support ol 

 his opinion, quotes the opinion of the late cele- 

 brated Mr. Wickham of ihiscity, who with more 

 wit than seiiousness, said he " would not believe 

 it il he was to see it." 



" A little experience is worth all the speculative 

 theories in the world. There is not a practical 

 farmer in Virginia, being at the same lime an 

 observing one, who does not know beyond all 

 possibility of being mistaken, that " wheat does 

 degenerate into cheat." Let the shattered wheat 

 around your stacks in the field come up volunta- 

 rily, and mature, and many times, particularly in 

 bad wheat years, the heads will be cheat not 

 wheat. Il is not alwa}-s the case, depending 

 apparently upon the character of the seasons. 

 So ol' the volunteer wheat permitted to spring up 

 in stubble fields — if ungrazed and sufiered lo 

 come to maturity, it will be cheat as often as 

 wheat. We suspect that this fact is true chiefly 

 or only of bad wheat climates, like ours of middle 

 Virginia ; here it is true beyond all question, not- 

 withstanding the writers on botany may have as- 

 signed wheat to one genus (^triticum hyberniLni) 

 and cheat to another (bromus secalinus.) It 

 may he presumptuous, but we are rather disposed 

 to believe those writers in error, than lo distrust 

 the evidence of ihe senses of all practical ob- 

 servers, 



"Agricola admits that all our thousand varie- 

 ties of apples, from the gloria mundi or the Hes- 

 perian fruit, to the lowest crab, have come from the 

 uneatable wild crab. Is there not as good ground 

 to assume that the wheat and cheat are varieties 

 of the same genus? In other words, may not 



the botanists erroneously have classed them ns 

 distinct genera, or species of distinct genera T' — 

 Rickinond fVitig. 



The above article is the first reiiorted ex- 

 cursion of the able editors of the Richmond 

 Whig in the field of agricultural investigation 

 and discussion; and we cannot congratulate 

 them on the value of the honor and success 

 acquired in the adventure. We should have 

 passed by this article, and without comment, as 

 we have done with almost every thing else 

 on this subject for the last six years, (upon the 

 ground that the subject had been sufficiently 

 discussed before,) but for the broad assertion 

 made by our brother editors above, that " there 

 is not a practical farmer in Virginia, being at 

 the same time an observant one, who does 

 not Imou', beyond all possibility of being mis- 

 taken, that wheat does degenerate into cheat." 

 Now, though declining again to argue here the 

 question of transmutation, yet on this incidental 

 issue, made upon knowledga and belief, we can 

 assert, and prove also if necessary, that there 

 are very i:nany practical and observant farmers 

 in Virginia, who not only do not " hnoiv that 

 wheat does degenerate into cheat," but who 

 fully believe the reverse ; and who agree with 

 the article in the Alexandria Gazette, that the 

 idea is an absurdity, unsupported by proof, 

 " and an unphilosophical and unscientific" 

 though certainly not an " exploded doctrine." 

 Though not deserving the I'eputation of being 

 a good or judicious farmer, we may venture 

 to claim the merit of having been a practical 

 one, literally, and an observant one, for the 

 more than twenty years of our practical agri- 

 cultural labors ; and that we iiot only still 

 stand as an exception to the sweeping classifi- 

 cation above of believers in transmutation, 

 but have steadfastly maintained the contrary, 

 and have proved it, as we conceive, so far as a 

 negative proposition, where mistake is possible, 

 is susceptible of proof Long ago we (in con- 

 junction with other farmers) subjected this 

 question, in the most rigid manner that could 

 be devised, to the test of actual and accurate 

 experiment; the results of which were pub- 

 lished in the first volume of this work, and 

 which will be republished below. No excep- 

 tion has ever beeii taken by any person to the 

 plan or the mode of conducting this experi- 

 ment ; nor do we conceive that it can be 

 shown to be deceptions in any point, unless 

 indeed by denial of the credibility of all the 

 parties concerned, who signed the statement 

 of facts and results. 



In addition to the testimony afforded by this 

 experiment, and all other facts and arguments 

 which were formerly adduced in this journal, 

 we offered (in this work) a reward of a full 

 set of the Farmers' Register, to any person 

 who woixld produce, and fuily prove the pro- 



