58 ____ 



teH^T^i^rnTE^and, but without any profitable 

 result, having no qualities that recouiiiiend it to 

 the notice of the agri.Mih mist. 



Son.e other varieties exist, vvlueh, al hough 

 they do not appear to be well adapted to the c h- 

 „,ate of Engla.,d, are yet cultivated extenstvely 

 elsewhere; they are therefore deservn.g of de- 

 Bcription. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



September 5, 1832. 



been the THficum of the Romans, anl the the two. The grain being of a jjiire brinistons 



Zea of the Greeks, although this latter nanid has 

 now been given to Maize, a grain unkno<Mi to 

 the ancients. This variety is still very abupjlant- 

 !y cultivated in many parts of the Conliuerl| and 

 particularly in the south of Europe. It nay he 

 raised upon much coarser soil than is requred for 

 the better kinds of wheat in England, anl calls 

 for much less culture. In many parts of Ge-n^ny, 

 in Swit/erland, in the south of France, inj the 

 north of Africa, and at the Cape of Good Ibpe, 

 spelt is grown abundantly, "f his is likewis^ the 

 case in Spain, where, on occasions when baray is 

 scarce, this grain is given to horses. It itjsaid 

 that s|)elt wheat is better adapted than any j! ^he 

 more delicate kinds for culture in .^ustrali^ and 

 probably it would be found the preferable Srk in 

 all the more southern wheat-growing countrei 



Ear and PI int of Esyplian, or many-ipikeil Wheat. 



Egyptian, or mav;i-spiked Wheat, ( Triticum com- 

 positiim,) called also the Corn of Abundance. This 

 species is |)riiicipally cultivated in the ronntry 

 whose name it bears, luid in Italy. It is probably 

 a native of the north of Africa, and resembles 

 spring wheat, in its habits, more than any other 

 descrii)tion. The ear is bciu-ded, and the grains 

 are thiimer than those of winter wheat. It is the 

 distinctive peculiarity of this plant that its raehis 

 is branched, so that the ear is made up of several 

 ipikelels. Egyptian wheat will bear great degrees 

 of heat and drouglit without injury, so that it is 

 found to yield abundantly in situations where oth- 

 er kinds woidd be greatly injured, if not destroy- 

 ed — a circumstance which points It out as adjni- 

 rably adapted to the arid lands whereon it is chief- 

 ly cultivated. ' 



Ear ond PInnt nf Spelt \Vlif«t. 



There are two distinct varieties of spelt, s- 

 tinguished as- the awued and the awnless; the t- 

 ter is perhaps the most naked, of nil the cerem. 

 The grains of this are large, but the ear coutijs 

 only a small niunber of them, as a portion of n 

 {lowers prove barren. It is generally, if not - 

 ways, a spring-sown crop ; grows strongly, aius 

 stalks are nearly solid. Bread made of its floiis 

 said to be of a dry quality. 



[Tobecominuei'.J 



FOB THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



I Mr Fessendkk— In my communication in yr 



I last, on the subject of budding, the letter ns('«) 



! illustrate my method of making the cross-cut v 



intended for an U.* As I called it a circular <, 



the error is apparent. The flukes and sbaftf 



nn anchor would have been a more correct fii;i. 



O. FISKK 



Worcester, Avgust 25, lP3a. 



Ear and Plant of Poliali u lieal. 

 Polish Wheat, (Triiirum polonic urn.)— This va- 

 riety was p;irtiully cnltiviUed in England in the 

 latter part of tlie seventeenth century, hut is now 

 to be found here only in botanic gardens. 



SINGULAR FACT. 

 In the course of some experiments made by 

 F.ditor of the American Farmer, for the purp 

 of improving Indian corn last year, he inipre^' 

 ted the pistils (.silk,) of the large white Tuskar 

 with the pollen from the tassels of the gob 

 sioux. The result was a perfect hybrid betwi 



lor, of the size and form of the Tuskarorn, and 

 like that with eight rows on the cob. It was a 

 most beautiful variety of corn : partaking of all 

 the good qualities of both, without the disadvan- 

 tage of the large cob and small grain of the gold- 

 en slonx. We planted this corn last spiing; tha 

 stalks were very dwarfish, resembling those of the 

 sioux, and the corn very early fit for use. It is 

 now ripe, however, and on examining it a day or 

 two since, we find that the two original colors 

 have separated, and instead of the brimstone color, 

 we have on every ear grains of the bright yellow 

 sinnx, and the pure white Tuskarora ; but the 

 qualify of the corn is evidently superior to either 

 of the original parents, although the colors have 

 resumed their original tints. This is, to us, a sin- 

 gular circumstance, and one which we are unable 

 to jic'ount for. The only thing analogous to it 

 we have read of, is the proposition advanced by an 

 iilile writer some time since in the colnmns of the 

 Fartiier, that the oftspring of cross breeds of ani- 

 mals would, instead of partaking of the mixtchar- 

 ncter of tlieir immediate parcius, assume that of 

 one or the other of the original progenitors. How 

 far this proposition may hold good with animals 

 we do not know, but it certainly appears to be the 

 cnse in the vegetatile work!, at least so far as the 

 fiict above stated warrants the formation of an 

 ojiinion. 



TherJ is a good deal nf did'icidty in reconciling 

 the above fact with the law of nature, which re- 

 cpiirestwo parents for the production of every or- 

 saniz^d being, animal or vegetable. If the two 

 kiniU of corn which were combined in the hybrid 

 hav become again distinct varieties, they are each 

 ftf hem the produce of hut one parent — the Tus- 

 kircira is the produce of a female parent exclusive- 

 ly, and the sioux that of a mali; parent ; for it must 

 he recollected there was no male Tuskarora nor 

 female sioux ]iresent, either during the origin of 

 :he hybrid, last year, or the subsequent culture and 

 separation of varieties this year. Yet we know, 

 that if we deprive the corn of either the male or 

 female flowers, (tassel or silk,) there will be no 

 corn fiiruied on the cob. How tlien are we to ac- 

 coimt for the jiresent fact of the separation of the 

 two varieties .' It was this ditiicidty that made 

 us doid)t the correctness of the proposition relative 

 to crosses of animals above referred to, and al- 

 though we have the fact before us in the case of 

 the corn, we are still compelled to doubt its gener- 

 al application. We do not think that each variety 

 has resumed all of its original characters ; one of 

 them we know it has not — the size of the sioux 

 grain is larger than the original, and there are but 

 eight rows on the cob; in these respects retain- 

 ing the hybrid character derivi-d from the Tuska- 

 rora ; but then the original color and flintiness of 

 the grain is resumed ; the Tuskarora has resumed 

 its original character entirely, with the exception 

 of the soft flowery quality of the grain — the flinti- 

 ness of the hybrid derived from the sioux parent 

 is retained. As the Tuskarora was the female pa- 

 rent of the hybrid, the nimibcr of rows and th« 

 size of the grain vvoidd of comse be like those of 

 that variety, and hence the presence of those char- 

 acters in the jiresent separated varieties. We 

 sboidd be glad to receive an explanation of thiscir- 

 cuiristance from some of our practised naturalists. 



See N. E. Farmer No. 6, page 42, column 3, 

 Spelt Wheat — (Trilicumspclta,) is imagined to '30 fiom the top. 



He that rises late must trot all day, and shall 

 scarce overtake his business at night. — Franklin. 



