1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



67 



Cliess. — A new case of Transmutation. 



Mr. Editor : — I do not know but I shall be 

 sneered at by the knowing ones, but being only 

 a plain illiterate farmer, I shall venture to relate 



among it. We poured this out, a half bushel at 

 a time in one place ; (it was at the edge of an or- 

 chard sowed with winter wheat, not on to what 

 was sown, but close up to it. ) A thick moss of 

 something, we did not then know what, came up, 

 the facts of a singular case that occurred on my M'^'^d through the winter, came to maturity, and 

 farm. I noticed them particularly at the lime, ^vas a thick moss of chess, 



without having my philosophy much disturbed ; 

 but since the agitation of the chess question, and 

 the light thrown on that subject, I admit that it 

 has been a serious slumbling block in my mind — 

 but to the facts. In 182.'"; I took possession of 

 the premises on which I now reside, the county 

 then being new and in the original forest state. 

 In 1826 I cleaned off a small field on the west 

 side of the creek, and on the 4th day of July 

 sowed it to oats. The season was dry; and they 

 were not all fairly up under four weeks. We 

 had early frosts, and it was apparent that they 

 would not ripen ; so, when about in the milk, I 

 had them cut and cured for fodder, wliich proved 

 excellent. 



The next spring on examining the ground, 

 there appeared at the roots of the stubble a strong, 

 new, fresh growth, appearing like oats or timo- 

 thy; but when it headed out, behold it was c/ies5, 

 every particle, and a glorious crop too. Tliese 

 were cut and cured for fodder, which did me 

 good service, as my cattle eat it with great avid- 

 ity. But the vagaries of nature did not stop here; 

 the next spring the ground was entirely green 

 again, but the leaves were not as broad and 

 stout as before. I rested till it headed out, and 

 what should it be but timothy, and a fine heavy 

 crop it was, which I continued to mow for a 

 number of years, till it was turned into pasture, 

 and within three years to turneps, flax, and corn. 

 Now, sir, these are facts. I cannot, nor do I 

 pretend, to account for these transformations, for 

 I have not even a theory on the subject. There 

 was no chess or timothy sown — that I am sure 

 of. I expect some of your correspondents will 

 blow me up on this subject, but they can't scare 

 me out of the truth of these statements. 



Yours, &c., John Kishlar. 



Greece Center, Feb. 1847. 



Note. — We publish the above as it came to 

 hand, without remark — premising that the wri- 

 ter is a respectable farmer of the town of Greece, 

 in this county — of an inquiring and speculative 

 turn of mind, and of undoubted veracity. 



Now we cannot reasonably suppose that more 

 than two or three, if any, kernels of chess could 

 have fallen on there by the sowing of the winter 

 wheat close to it — especially as there was no un- 

 usual quantity in that, and spring wheat I sup- 

 pose never has it in. Now the question is, what 

 caused this growth of chess? If you will ex- 

 plain it, a young farmer who does not believe 

 "wheat will turn to chess" will be much obliged, 

 and I presume it will interest your readers gen- 

 erally. You may be assured the facts are as sta- 

 ted above. Yours, &c., 



Sodus, Jan. .30, 1847. L. H. C. 



Remarks. — The only way we can account for 

 the appearance of chess is to suppose that there 

 wa^, by some means, kernels of chess in the 

 cleanings of the spring wheat ; for our corres- 

 p ndent will hardly admit that the defective 

 grains of spring wheat could have withstood the 

 winter, and lived over, even for the purpose of 

 producing chess. * 



A few words about Chess. 



Mr. Editor : — I have a fact with regard to 

 the growth of chess, that I think worthy of com- 

 municating to you, and which 1 will state in as 

 few words as possible. In cleaning a quantity 

 of very smutty spring wheat, in the fall of 184.5, 

 we blew out a number of bushels, composed al- 

 most entirely of smut balls — a very few kernels 

 cf good wheat, and some pretty sound were 



OftKiiN OF THE Upas tree story. — A real 

 valley of death exists in Java ; it is termed the 

 Valley of Poison, and is filled to a considerable 

 height with carbonic acid gas, which is exhaled 

 from crevices in the ground. If a man or any 

 animal enter it he cannot return ; and he is not 

 sensible of his danger, until he feels himselfsink- 

 ing under the poisonous influence of the atmos- 

 phere which surrounds him ; the carbonic acid 

 of which it chiefly exists, rising to the height of 

 eighteen feet from the bottom of the valley. — 

 Birds that fly into this atmosphere drop dead ; 

 and a living fowl thrown into it dies before 

 reaching the bottom, which is strewed with the 

 carcases of various animals that have perished in 

 the deleterious gas. 



Tins ga.s is precisely similar to that formed in 

 the human system, and in the bodies of all ani- 

 mals by the combustion of a portion of their 

 food. This gas is expelled from their lungs ev> 

 ery time they breathe. In the particular locality 

 in Java, the carbonic acid gas is disengaged in 

 the earth by heat acting on limestone ; or on 

 coal in the presence of oxygen. 



It is said that water in which potatoes have 

 been boiled, sprinkled upon plantsof any kind, is 

 sure death to all insects, in every stage of their 

 existence. 



The depradations of birds are fully compensa- 

 ted by the services they render in preying upon 

 insects. 



