No. 3. 



Wheat turning into Cheat, or Bromus. 



79 



tinct kiiitls of trees growing' together, their 

 roots and bases so united and grown into 

 each other, that it was altogether impossible 

 to separate them ; yet who would say that a 

 hickory nut produced an oak, or an acorn a 

 hickory 1 or that a poplar and a maple sprang 

 from the same seed ! I will not write the 

 word by which the world would designate 

 the man who should make such an assertion. 

 Another person, also known to the writer of 

 this, was very particular in selecting and 

 cleaning his seed. I give the result in his 

 own words: "For thirty years I have not 

 had a stalk of cheat on my premises." My 

 own observation goes to show that the more 

 attention is devoted to obtaining' clean seed, 

 the less cheat will be found in the crop; 

 while a contrary result follows uniformly 

 from an opposite course. Is more required .' 

 I am able to give yet more ; for I have seen 

 cheat growing- profusely where no wheat 

 had been sown since the memory of man, if 

 indeed it had ever been. 



I have never heard it contended that 

 other grain, or any other plant, is turned 

 into cheat, except wheat alone ; yet have I 

 seen it growing among all other kinds of 

 grain, in tields of Indian corn, and bearing 

 a conspicuous part in crops of grass, where 

 little or no other grain was to be seen. In 

 what way will the advocates of chaiige ac- 

 count for this? To solve the difficulty, some 

 admit the growth of cheat from its o\\ n seed, 

 an admission fatal to their theory, as I con- 

 ceive; while others, in accordance with the 

 nature of liybrids and chance productions, 

 deny its growth thus, and offer no explanation 

 whatever. But with an air of triumph they 

 point us to the larger proportion of cheat in 

 places where the wheat has failed from any 

 cause, and ask us \vhy is this? The same 

 thing, however, may be seen in other grains. 

 Do these likewise change into the same 

 identical cheat ! Impossible : it is not con- 

 tended for, nor even hinted. Here, then, is 

 the old difficulty; a difficulty altogether in- 

 explicable by the theory of change, but very 

 easily explained on other principles, which 

 I proceed to notice. 



Cheat is, as I have said, a separate and 

 distinct species of plant, having the peculiar 

 characteristics already noticed. This plant 

 is particularly hardy, not being atlected by 

 those causes which often produce a failure 

 in other kinds of grain. This will satisfac- 

 torily account for the prevalence of cheat 

 in places where wheat has been destroyed 

 by wet, or by the winter. The same thing 

 may be observed where the seed of wheat, 

 or other grain has been picked up by the 

 birds, or cropped oft' after it has come up. 

 The wheat was picked up while the cheat 



was left to grow; or both being cropped off, 

 the wheat was killed, and the cheat being 

 more hardy, and withal a little later in its 

 season, sprouts up, grows again, and pro- 

 duces seed. yVnother reason of this appa- 

 rent prevalence may be found in the fact — 

 which does not seem to be generally no- 

 ticed — that cheat produces twice the seed 

 that wheat does, and more than any other 

 grain with which I am acquainted. It was 

 but a day or two ago, that I counted on a 

 small head of cheat, not less than one hun- 

 dred and twenty grains ; while fifty or sixty 

 giains are allowed to make a good head of 

 wheat, and the very largest that ever fell 

 under my observation, yielded onl}- one hun- 

 dred and five. Oats seldom reach one hun- 

 dred and twenty, thougli the most prolific of 

 all our cultivated grains. What number of 

 grains a large head of cheat would yield, I 

 am unable to say. 



I have already given facts to sustain my 

 opinion that cheat is only produced from its 

 own seed : — it may not be amiss to say in 

 addition, that different individuals have 

 sown it, and it has always reproduced its 

 kind. An experiment might be tried as 

 follows: in a garden plot, or other suitable 

 place, plant — not sow — ^^a certain number of 

 grains of wheat in such regular form, and 

 at such regular distances, that it may be 

 readily known if any of them fail to grow, 

 or change into something else. If this be 

 fairly done, I dare venture to say that no 

 cheat will be found where wheat was 

 planted ; and if cheat be found in the plot 

 at all, it will be irregularly, and from seed 

 contained in the manure, or previously lying 

 in the ground. All irregularity or uncer- 

 tainty in conducting the experiment, would 

 be fatal to the result. The number of seeds 

 and the precise spot of their deposit must 

 be known, or nothmg definite will be ascer- 

 tained. Vary the experiment by substitut- 

 ing cheat grains for some of the grains of 

 wheat, and the result will show a stalk — or 

 ratiier a root producing several stalks — of 

 cheat for each grain of cheat planted, and 

 the same in respect to the wheat. Some 

 grains may not grow-, but these will be 

 readily known, and if more should spring 

 up than were planted, it will only prove 

 that more seed was supplied from some other 

 source. The intelligent experimenter will 

 perceive other methods of arriving at cer- 

 tainty in the matter, and I am persuaded 

 they will all result alike. 



That cheat will grow, also accounts 

 for the fact adverted to above, of cheat 

 orow'ing profusely in grass fields. Four 

 years ago last spring, it vvas my lot to ob- 

 serve a fipld oi this kind. I thought it 



