420 



FARMERS' REGISTER— WHEAT— FALL OF A CLIFF. 



els of berries would yield 630 pounds of wax, 

 which, at 10 cents a pound, tallow j)rice, would 

 make $63. 



As we have stated already, one man v/ill pick 

 up in a field from 3 to 4 bushels in one day, it 

 follows that the picking of the whole 105 busiiels, 

 will require the labor of a hand during a whole 

 month ; admitting SIS for the Mages and finding — 

 then ^18 deducted from $63, the value of the crop 

 as before stated, the balance, 845, will be the nett 

 profit accruing to the farmer. 



Besides such a valuable income, this culture re- 

 ceives additional recommendations from the follow- 

 ing circumstances : 



1st. It grows in the v/orst soils, especially if 

 damp and sandy. 



2d. It requires no fences, as the cuttle do not 

 meddle with it. 



3d. Once planted, it requires no attendance ex- 

 cept in picking time. 



4th. The picking may Le performed by boys, 

 girls, old men and old women, ^vho else would be 

 useless on the plantation. 



6th. By a process discovered lately, the myrtle 

 v/ax may be bleached to a degree of whiteness 

 equal to that of bees wax. This process adds only 

 five cents per pound to the original price, is done in 

 a short time, and within the power of every indi- 

 vidual to perform. 



6th. A soap equal, if not superior, to any shav- 

 ing or fancy soap imported from Europe, can be 

 manufactured of the myrtle wax. 



RESULT OF EXPERIMENTS OX WHEAT. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 



Mr. Editor, — Having observed much contro- 

 versy maintained through the columns of the Ge- 

 nesee Farmer during the past year, upon the novel 

 subject of wheat, by a natural process, turning to 

 chess [cheat,] although from first tolast incredulous, 

 I had the curiosity to give the subject some atten- 

 tion ; this more especially when the names of Da- 

 vid Thomas and Gideon Rarasdell were to be seen 

 among the belligerents. I claim the latter of 

 these gentlemen as a former acquaintance and 

 friend, and believe him a person of truth and rec- 

 titude, and that he would not on any account 

 knowingly state that which he knew not to be 

 true; but I am certainly disposed to think him la- 

 boring under a mistake when he asserts "wheat 

 will turn to chess" under any circumstances. 



The subject being both new and interesting to 

 me, I embraced the earliest opportunity of testing 

 its truth by experiment. Accordingly I removed 

 a piece of sward from a waste corner in my gar- 

 den — marked the spot and took eveiy precaution 

 against deception. Thirty small stakes were then 

 driven down in this prepared spot ; and from the 

 outside of a wheat stack I took a head of wheat, 

 the grains of which appeared considerably wea- 

 ther-beaten and of a dull color, some of the grains 

 ■were sprouted and the sprouts withered. I placed 

 a grain of this wheat by the side of each stake 

 and left them uncovered, protecting it from the 

 fowl with brush. When it come up in the fall I 

 examined it critically, and ascertained that each 

 etalk came directly from the grains of wheat I had 

 planted. The severity of the winter killed a part 

 of it. That which withstood the winter I kept 

 clear of weeds and grass. Early in May I muti- 



lated one half of it — it sprung up again and all 

 produced wheat, and not so much as one grain of 

 chess. Not being satistied with the first, I made 

 a second experiment; trying to raise chess on a 

 larger scale. In thrashing my wheat on an earth- 

 ern floor exposed to the weather, a shower came 

 up and prevented me from sweeping the iloor after 

 the chief of the wheat was removed where it could 

 be kept dry ; the sv.eepings lay on the floor two 

 weeks, untd it had the appearance of being much 

 damaged, it was then taken up without further 

 cleaning and sowed in a place adjoining the place 

 sowed with the wlieat which was thrashed and 

 properly taken care of at the same time. At har- 

 vest time I could discover no more chess upon 

 that part sowed with the damaged wheat, than up- 

 on that sowed with the good wheat. There was 

 as usual some through all of it. 



***** 



SaXECA LAPHAM. 



Champaign Co. Ohio, Oct. 1, 1833. 



FALL, OF A CLIFF IX EXGLAXD. 



From White's Natural History of Selborne. 

 W^hen I was a boy, I used to read with astonish- 

 ment and implicit assent, accounts in Baker's 

 Chronicle of walking hills and travelling moun- 

 tains. John Philips, in his Cyder, alludes to the 

 credit that was given to such stories with a deli- 

 cate but quaint vein of humor peculiar to the au- 

 thor of the Splendid Shilling. 



" I nor advise, nor reprehend, the choice 

 Of Marcley Hill ; the apple no where finds 

 A kinder mould : yet 'tis unsafe to trust 

 Deceitful ground : who knows but that, once more, 

 This mount may journey, and, his present site 

 Forsaking, to thy neighbor's bounds transfer 

 Thy goodly plants, affording matter strange 

 For law debates !" 



But when I came to consider better, I began to 

 suspect that though our hills may never havejour- 

 neyed far, yet that the ends of many of them have 

 slipped and fallen away at distant periods, leaving 

 the clitTs bare and abrupt. This seems to have been 

 the case with Nore and Whetham Hills, and espe- 

 cially with the ridge between Harteley Park and 

 Ward-le-ham, where the ground has slid into vast 

 swellings and furrows, and lies still in such roman- 

 tic confusion as cannot be accounted for from any 

 other cause. A strange event, that happened not 

 long since, justifies our suspicions; which, though 

 it befell not within the limits of this parish, yet as 

 it was within the hundred of Selborne, and as the 

 circumstances vv'ere singular, may fairly claim a 

 place in a work of this nature. 



The montlis of January and February, in the 

 year 1774, were remarkable for great melting 

 snows and vast gluts of rain, so that by the end of 

 the latter month the land-springs, or levants, be- 

 gan to prevail, and to be near as high as in the me- 

 morable winter of 1764. The beginning of March 

 also went on in the same tenor, when in the night 

 between the 8th and 9th of that month, a conside- 

 rable part of the great woody hanger at Hawkley 

 was torn from its place, and fell down, leaving a 

 high tree- stone cliff naked and bare, and resem- 

 bling the steep side of a chalk pit. It appears that 

 this huge fragment, being perhaps sapped and un- 

 dermined by waters, foundered, and was ingulfed, 

 going down in a perpendicular direction; for a 



