806 



FARMERS' REGISTER— CHESS OR CHEAT. 



who take no interest in the matter, are oppress- 

 ed by languor, I hope they will turn to other amuse- 

 ments, and be too poliie to yawn in our presence. 

 I have said that we are gaining ground. In Vir- 

 ginia this subject has been investigated in a man- 

 ner deserving of great praise ; and ii'our opponents, 

 in their experiments of the ensuing season will 

 adopt the same plain and philosophical method, this 

 long controversy will doubtless soon be brought to 

 a satisfactory termination. 



Thomas Cocke and Ethnund R\iffin, of opposite 

 opinions on the origin of chess, in company with 

 Williajii J. Cocke who was undecided, selected a 

 clean piece of hard wet ground, and marked it out 

 in right lines, planting a few small or shrivelled 

 grains of wheat, such as is supposed to turn into 

 chess, — at measured distances. A small spot ad- 

 joining was strewed broad cast with similar defec- 

 tive seed. In the spring, it v/as found that only a 

 part of these seeds had germinated, so verjr imper- 

 fect was their quality ; and as a further test, some 

 of these plants were cut down within an inch of 

 the ground. The parties say " It was our design 

 in this experiment to bring into Operation every 

 cause to which this change is usually ascribed liy 

 different persons, namely, 1. Imperfect seed. 2. 

 Thick sowing. 3. A wet soil. 4. Hard or un- 

 broken soil. 5. Grazing or mowing." iNfo trans- 

 mutation however was effected by any [or all] of 

 these Jive causes. At harvest there stood the 

 wheat, and not one stalk of chess in the whole 

 patch. 



Now contrast this exi)erimcnt with Gideon 

 RamsdeWs. He appears not to have taken any of 

 his opponents into counsel, but to have chosen his 

 o-wn ground. Whether that on which he raised 

 the hills of chess, was clean or not, he hjis not 

 thought it necessary to say, — perhaps like some of 

 his associates in that notion, not deeming it of any 

 consequence. Plough Jogger says, " The man 

 that sows clean seed wheat, and in time of harvest 

 finds one fourth, or one half of it chess, knows for 

 a certain that wheat will turn to cliess." This is 

 drawing a conclusion from only half of the premi- 

 ses. G. R. does tiie same : he admits that the lot 

 in which his hired man sowed damaged wheat, was 

 not quite but only " viearZy clean ;" and because 

 chess grew there, he confidently assumes that it 

 sprung from the wheat. 



It is worthy of remark that the more carelessly 

 our opponents conduct their experiments, the more 

 likely they are to succeed. I do not impeach their 

 honesty ; but to every mind that has been disci- 

 plined in the rigorous inductions of modern philoso- 

 phy, it must be evident that such experiments are 

 not entitled to our confidence. 



There is nothing new in the circumstance that 

 a stubble field of wheat has produced chess ; and 

 it has been explained on former occasions. The 

 plant mutilated by G. R. has not been shown to 

 have been wheat : we have neither proof nor detail 

 of that " certainty." Last spring, one of the best 

 farmers in our country, found a head of wheat 

 which had sijrouted, and he was confident the plants 

 were chess, thinking he knew them by the leaves ; 

 but Dr. Charles Toaii of Springport, planted them 

 in his garden, and these proved at harvest to be 

 genuine wheat. It also appears from the expe- 

 riments in Virginia, that wheat plants cut off n«ar 

 the ground, sprouted anew and |)roduced wheat. 

 The evidence in regard to the field of Ambrose 



Burr, is not less defective. Newly burnt land 

 and clean seed will not imply that no chess was 

 dropped on it by his team ni seeding time, or by 

 his live stock in winter, without adverting to other 

 causes. 



I planted one seed of genuine chess in my gar- 

 den last fall which produced this season seven 

 stalks, the largest four feet high, and yielded more 

 than two thousand two hundred seeds. This result 

 is very different from G. R's experiment. 



If both rye and flax turn into two other kinds of 

 chess in one district, they must occasionally under- 

 go similar changes in otiier districts. Yet no bo- 

 tanist has found any such plants; and G. R. can- 

 not be accredited with this discovery till a decis- 

 ion in his favor be made by some competent per- 

 son. In this quarter, we have only one kind, the 

 common chess, growing indifferently both among 

 wheat and rye. 



The manner in which G. R. attempts to explain 

 the result of //. Chapin's experiment, is very un- 

 satisfactory. "■ His process was not agreeable to 

 direction inasmuch as he cleaned the loheat instead 

 of planting the heads." I cannot see why old chafi" 

 should turn wdieat into chess, merely by being in 

 contact, any more than old brown paper would 

 turn it. 'I'hat was drawing too hard on our cre- 

 dulity. 



When chess infests a farm, it is more dilficuit 

 to exterminate than some imagine, owing to the 

 various ways, already mentioned, in v.hich it may 

 be scattered over the fields and meadows; and es- 

 pecially when it is closely surrounded by other 

 farms that are foul with this weed. Noah Dennis 

 has used all reasonable means to destroy it ; he has 

 cleaned his seed wheat, and carefully pulled it up 

 in his fields ; and year after year he has found it 

 scarcer, yet a little still gets in. Not being well 

 enough to be out in harvest, he requested one of 

 his men to take notice if any chess occurred ; and 

 in half a day he found only one j)lant. This fact I 

 respectf Liily submit to the candid consideration of G. 

 R. andoftiiose whoiniite with him in opinion. It 

 will be hard to explain on their principles, but very 

 easy on ours. That regular diminution of the weed 

 is just such a result as we know would follow a spi- 

 rited attack on the Canada tliistles that infest so m.a- 

 ny farms : they woukl grow scarcer every year ; but 

 a few seeds coming from the neighbors would ren- 

 der a strict watch necessary. If Canada thistles 

 however, originated from clover and timothy every 

 time that the first was throwi\ out by frost, or the 

 latter eaten down, there could be no regular gra- 

 dation about it. One unfiivorable winter, or one 

 visit from trespassing cattle, would disannul all 

 our previous labors. Providentially things are 

 not so, either in regard to chess or to thistles ; and 

 the farmer may go on with full assurance that na- 

 ture is not so wild and unmanageable as our oppo- 

 nents imagine. 



In a former article, G. R. has said, " Uncover- 

 ed wheat will always produce chess as a natural 

 consequence." On this point also, he is mistaken. 

 iMy friend John Brotherton, whose veracity will 

 not be questioned, lately informed me that a few 

 years ago, he observed a lot of stubble near his 

 house, some time in autimin, becoming green from 

 the wheat dropped in harvesting; and he conclu- 

 ded to save it for a crop. The ground was neither 

 ploughed, harrowed, nor cultivated in any other 

 manner whatever ; and some of his neighbors were 



