254 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Nov 



lUl)cat ^^"sbanbrg. 



CHESS AND WHEAT. 



Ai/ii have perhaps heard and -te&d enough of the 

 vexed question, whether wheat will or will not pro- 

 duce chess. Men of science universally reject the 

 idea that ichenl. turns to chess, as they are of a differ- 

 ent genus. New varieties of the same species and 

 genus are produced by the admixture of pollen. — 

 Thus, the different varieties of corn will readily mix : 

 but wheat will not produce oats, nor oats ry«. If 

 wheat turns to chess, it presents a solitary exception 

 to the laws which govern the vegetable kingdom — 

 an anomaly in the vegetable world. On the other 

 hand, many farmers present facts, which certainly 

 look rather stubborn, as facts are apt to do when they 

 stand in the way of a favorite theory. Of course, if 

 chess could be found growing from the same root, 

 and on the same stalk with wheat, theory would have 

 to surrender. Large sums of money have at various 

 times been offered for a. specimen of wheat and chess 

 thus connected ; and though we do not recollect that 

 the reward was ever claimed, yet scores of men are 

 to be found, who are willing to testify that they have 

 seen wheat and chess growing together. 



A few weeks since, a head of wheat and chess, (an 

 exact copy of which is seen in the engraving,) was 

 left at our office 

 by a farmer of 

 Williamson, 

 Wayne co., who 

 thought himself 

 entitled to the 

 prize. The ap- 

 pearance, at first 

 sight, favored the 

 idea; but on close 

 examination, and 

 on removing one 

 grain near the 

 dotted line, and 

 bending down 

 the hull, we could 

 readily pepceive 

 the ends of the 

 two chess stems, 

 and by moving 

 them the heads 

 were moved, 

 showing that 

 there was not the 

 least connection 

 between the 

 chess and wheat. 

 Had not this 

 specimenn been 

 subjected to a 

 close examina- 

 tion, our friend 

 of Williamson, 

 and all who hap- 

 pened to see it, 

 would have been 

 willing to have 

 testified years 

 hence, tliat they 

 had seen wheat 

 and chess growing from the same straw. The cboss 

 must have become entwined around the wheat while 



the head was forming, and been secured there by the 

 growth of the grain and chaff. When ripe, of course 

 the stem, being very slender, was easily broken off 

 in reaping, or in some other way. We presume this 

 is about a fair specimen of the many heads of wheat 

 and chess that have been seen growing together in 

 various parts of the country. 



Messrs. Editors: — With your permission I will 

 tell you what I know of the growth of smut. I com- 

 menced harvesting a good piece of wheat, and when 

 we came to the side next the woods, my cradler called 

 me to him. I there found a spot, about two feet 

 square, on which there was no wheat ; and for some 

 distance around, the wheat had grown up six, ten, 

 and twenty inches, and died without headuig. Then 

 for one or two feet more, it was all smut. A little 

 further, about one-half was good ; and a little further 

 still, all was good wheat. To ascertain the cause I 

 examined the spot, and where there was no wheat I 

 found a skunk that I had killed early in the spring ; 

 that is, the bones and hair. The stench was about 

 as strong as ever. 



I have lived on a farm in this county, over half a 

 century. When farming was first commenced here, 

 it was in small patches in a heavy forest, and we 

 were all troubled with smut in our wheat, till we 

 brined and limed our seed. I once failed to prepare 

 seed enough for a lot, and I sowed dry wheat to finish. 

 The result was, the dry seed did not produce over 

 three quarters as much as the prepared seed did, and 

 was very smutty. It was all sown in one day, and 

 on the same quality of ground. 



I once saw a piece of wheat growing in a sugar 

 orchard, and at least one-half was smut. I then 

 thought, and still think, that the impurity of the at- 

 mosphere, caused by maple trees, produced the smut. 

 Since our wheat-growing lands have become older, 

 we arc not troubled with smut as formerly. I con- 

 sider it of great importance to change seed wheat 

 from oak to maple lands as often as every three or 

 four years. I believe wheat sown ten years on one 

 farm, without brining and liming, will not produce 

 much over one-half as much as it would if the seed 

 had been changed two or three times, from ten to 

 twenty miles, and also from a different soil. D. K. 

 K.—Port Byron, .T\\ Y., 1850. 



Messrs. Editors: — I have read, in the Genesee 

 Farmer, several articles concerning smut in wheat, 

 written by J. II. H. I suppose him to be one of 

 what I call the "never-sweats'" — that he is rich, and 

 has nothing to do but to hiuit up bugs and bottle 

 them, and has thereby made the great discovery that 

 a certain bug will eat smut in wheat. 1 have liogs 

 that will eat corn ; but they do not produce any. 

 This great discovery is so foolish, that I am con- 

 strained to write an easy and simple remedy for smut 

 in wheat, and will tell the cause of it. The practice 

 I have followed over twenty years, and it has never 

 failed. Eirst, select your seed wheat standing in 

 the iield, that is clear of smut : let it stand till it is 

 pretty ripe ; cut it in the middle of the day, when it 

 is perfectly dry ; shock it up and let it stand till it 

 is thoroughly cured : then draw it into the barn and 

 put it on a scaffold over the floor, or where it can not 



