No. 5. 



Chess — Bromus Secalinus. 



149 



like a fair estimate of its probable domestic 

 consumption. The growing crop of Indian 

 corn for that year was estimated at 377,531, 

 873 bushels, or 75,506,375 barrels. We 

 will assume this to be the crop of the last 

 j-ear: although the crop of the last year is 

 not believed to have been so large as those 

 of preceding years. The population of the 

 United States at present is supposed to be, 

 in round numbers, 20,000,000. Of these, 

 3,000,000 are under the age often years: 

 leaving 17,000,000 above that age, who may 

 be put down as consumers of Indian corn to 

 a greater or less extent. In 1840, there 

 were in the United States 26,301,293 of 

 hogs— 19,311,374 of sheep— 14,971,586 of 

 neat cattle — 4,335,669 of horses and mules — 

 $9,344,410 in value of poultry; and estimat- 

 ing these at an average value of thirty cents 

 each, there was in number, 30,000,000 of 

 poultry in the country. There were also, 

 41,402,627 gallons of spirituous liquor dis- 

 tilled, of which, one-half, say 20,701,313 gal- 

 lons were made of Indian corn, which re- 

 quired 6,900,437 bushels, or 1,330,089 barrels. 

 Now, this crop of 75,506,375 barrels, only 

 gives to each hog one barrel and a half of 

 corn — to each sheep two gallons — to each of 

 the neat cattle one-half barrel — to each horse 

 one barrel and a half — to each of the poultry 

 two gallons — and to each human being, over 

 ten years old, one barrel; after deducting the 

 number of barrels distilled into spirituous li 

 quor. Besides these, it is believed there are 

 1,000,000 of dogs of all descriptions, in the 

 United States; and lest I may be considered 

 as having given out too large an allowance 

 to the above named description of consumers, 

 I think, with the aid of a " Philadelphia 

 Lawyer" to assist me in counting the mil 

 lions of rats, and squirrels, and raccoons, and 

 bears, and goats, and deer, and crows, and 

 blackbirds, and other graniverous and bread 

 eating animals, not enumerated in the cen 

 sus, all of which will get their share in spite 

 of you — together with the consumption, by 

 means of wastage, losses by transportation, 

 and other " accidents by flood and field," we 

 may together, make out consumers enough, 

 likely to take whatever surplus may be left 

 And yet, notwistanding the claims of these 

 various consumers, which show, at least, the 

 extent to which the domestic consumption of 

 Indian corn might be pushed, we actually 

 e.xported to Great Britain and Ireland during 

 the year ending the 1st of September, 1847, 

 the amount of 17,293,744 bushels of Indian 

 corn, and 847,230 barrels of corn meal, mak- 

 ing together 4,307,628 barrels of Indian corn : 

 besides nearly 20,000,000 bushels of wheat, 

 — including wheat and wheat flour — whicl 

 latter amount is nearly one-fourth of tlie en 



tire estimated crop of wheat of the year 

 1846. Now all these things go to show, not 

 only the vast extent of the domestic con- 

 sumption of the country, and the point to 

 which it might be made to reach, but at the 

 same time, they furnish ground for serious 

 reflections, whether the exportation of bread- 

 stuff's from the country may not be carried 

 to an extent which might produce a scarcity 

 at home — such in fact now seems to be the 

 case in parts of Pennsylvania, and in regard 

 to the article of wheat, there are reasons for 

 believing that the crop will be deficient 

 throughout the country. 



Chess. 



Bromus Secalinus. 



Few subjects of practical agriculture have 

 a greater interest than this. Substituted for 

 wheat, not a more miserable crop'exists. Its 

 appearance in a field of wheat is like the 

 plague spot on the human frame. To avoid 

 it the farmer is obliged to see that his seed 

 wheat is pure, and utterly destitute of that 

 seed. It is the remark of many thorough 

 farmers, that they never raise chess. This 

 would be adequate proof in any other case 

 of the origin of the plant. 



But the remark is often made that the 

 fields in which the wheat is winter-killed, 

 abound in chess. The proof is palpable. 

 Numerous such fields have been seen this 

 year. Is this adequate reason for the opin- 

 ion that wheat is converted into chess by the 

 frosts of winter] 1 think not, for the fol- 

 lowing reasons. 



1. All the wheat fields in which the wheat 

 has been killed by the winter, do not abound 

 in it, and some of them are free from it. It 

 is curious that the chess is not the uniform 

 result of the killing of wheat, if the supposed 

 change is eflfected by the operation of winter. 



2. Wheat and chess are not found grow- 

 ing on the same root. The contrary has 

 been alleged, but an examination of the 

 cases has ever proved that this is not the 

 fact. If wheat is converted into chess, all 

 the plants on the same root are the subjects 

 of the transformation. 



3. The distinctness and difference of the 

 two. Wheat has a long head, or spike, of 

 sessile flowers, and does not send out branch- 

 es; chess has a diffusely divided stem or 

 panicle, in several places towards the sum- 

 mit, in form like oats, and bearing short, and 

 rather close, short spikes, or collections of 

 flowers. The supposed change, therefore, 

 affects the whole form and appearance uf the 

 plant. The embryo plant is formed in the 

 seed of wheat, and the change must aflfect 

 the very form of the embryo, and cause a 



