100 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
section at the end, over the feed trough, is hung 
with hinges for a door, through which to place 
feed, etc. The levers have their fulcrum ends rest¬ 
ing on the axle, and are bolted to it. About 12 
inches from it, and opposite to it, and through the 
middle posts, are pivot bolts, on which the weight 
of the house hangs when the levers are being 
worked. Narrow strips are used as braces for stif¬ 
fening the frame lengthwise, which are placed in¬ 
side, also bits of hoop iron should be used about 
the comers to strengthen the joints. With these 
appliances, and proper tools, any skillful mechanic 
can complete the job. Its weight is about 300 
pounds, and the house affords room for keeping 
from 12 to 24 fowls through the season. The ad¬ 
vantages of such a house are that the fowls are un¬ 
der perfect control, and are kept quite as healthy 
as when running at large. Every morning, when 
the house is moved, there is provided a clean, fresh 
apartment, with fresh earth and grass. Fowls be¬ 
come thoroughly domesticated by being thus treat¬ 
ed. Those that are inclined to sit, are put outside, 
they will hang about, and make an effort to get in, 
and the desire to sit soon passes away. The ma¬ 
nure is all saved to the best advantage. 
STew and Wonderful Farm Seeds. 
Our regular dealers—by our we do not mean New 
York City only, but the whole country—endeavor to 
keep well up with the times, and supply such seeds 
as have an established reputation, or which seem 
worthy of further trial. But aside from the regular 
dealers—men known in their trade all the way from 
Boston and other New England Cities, to Omaha 
and other Western localities—there seems to be a 
set of men at work with seeds not kno fra in the 
see a remarkable Rye at a commission house in 
the City. It was a clean and heavy grain, unlike 
any rye we had ever seen, and offered at $10 the 
pint. Since then both Mr. Fuller and the writer, 
have kept the mn of, and exchanged samples of 
this grain as it has come under different names. 
In the course of several years, we have received 
specimens of the same grain—that is, so far as ex¬ 
ternal appearance, aided by the microscope goes, 
identically the same—from various parties, some 
times as rye, and at others as wheat. As follows : 
Diamond Wheat. 
Wild Goose “ 
Big Seed ‘ ‘ or 
Wheat of Taos. 
Fig. 1.— sproule’s portable poultrt house. —(See page 99.) 
regular trade ; and they do not advertise them, so 
far as we have seen, in the well known agricultural 
papers. Our correspondence shows that these seeds 
are offered by mail, with very attractive terms to 
agents, and by the aid of circulars, which promise 
very largely. Indeed, if the statements in these 
circulars are true, the knowledge of the excellence 
of the seeds should not be confiued to the few who 
receive them, but ought to be known to the whole 
farming community. Leaving other seeds out of 
consideration for the present, we give special atten¬ 
tion to a grain which has turned up, under one name 
and another, during the last ten or a dozen years, as a 
Wonderful Wheat or Rye, 
In this article we do not propose to discuss the 
intrinsic value of the grain in question. That it 
may be useful in some localities is possible, if not 
probable. What we now wish to show is, that 
the grain is offered in a very peculiar manner un¬ 
der a variety of names, and in a way likely to con¬ 
found and bewilder the farmer, who may come across 
the circulars of those who sell it, and who might 
wish to make a trial of it. Our first acquaintance 
with this particular grain was under the name of 
Nevada Rye. 
Some 10 or 12 years ago, we went, in company 
with our friend A. S. Fuller, now the competent 
agricultural Editor of the N. Y. “ Weekly Sun,” to 
Montana Spring Rye. 
Montana Rye. 
Russian “ 
Nevada “ 
As said before, we leave the question of the real 
value of the grain out of consideration. If it has 
any real value, the important point is, wliat is the 
grain ? Is it Rye or is it Wheat ? If Rye or Wheat, 
what is its proper name ? Without troubling the 
reader by a relation of the steps by which we have 
arrived at the conclusion, we feel perfectly safe in 
giving it as our opinion that this many-named 
“Wheat” or “Rye,” is simply the old, very old, 
grain known in Europe as Polish Wheat, Triticum 
Polonicum, and which has in Europe about as many 
different names as have been given it by the seed 
speculators in this country. This is a distinct 
species of wheat, and as different from the varieties 
ordinarily cultivated as wheat, as are the several 
forms of “ Spelt ” or “ Speltz Wheat.” We are so 
well convinced that this remarkable Wheat, or Rye,- 
offered in this country under the various names given 
above, is the “ Polish Wheat,” or Triticum Poloni¬ 
cum, and nothing else, that we give an account of 
Tlie Polish Wheat. 
which would seem to be a misnomer, as it is of 
African origin, and has been cultivated in Egypt 
and other portions of North¬ 
ern Africa from very early 
times. In France, so un¬ 
like is it to any ordinary 
wheat that it is known as 
Seigle d' Afnque, or “African 
Rye.” According to Klip- 
part, in “ The WheatPlant,” 
this species is known in 
Europe as Wallachian, As- 
trachan—andEgyptianCorn, 
Gounner, Symaker, Silesian, 
Cairo, and Double Wheat, 
in Germany; as Ble (wheat) 
d’ Egypte, Ble de Surinam, 
Ble de Magador, Ble de 
Pologne a Epi Divarique, in 
Prance. Fromenta di Polonia 
in Italy , and as Trigo di 
Polonia in Spain. He men¬ 
tions four varieties, and Madame Yilmorin, who 
wrote the very elaborate article on Wheat for the 
“Encyclopedie Pratique de L' Agricvlteur," mentions 
its great tendency to vary, and figures two of the 
most striking forms. We give here an engrav¬ 
ing of a head of this grain raised in this country; 
it differs from the common wheat in the great size 
of its glumes and palets, or the envelopes which 
form the chaff; these are very large, and usually 
have very long awns, or bristles, though in some 
of the European forms these are much smaller, and 
there is probably the same variation in this respect 
that there is in our ordinary wheats. The grain of 
the Polish wheat is long and narrow, semi-transpar¬ 
ent and homy in texture. When cut under the 
microscope, a grain of ordinary wheat is opaque 
and floury, but. this shows nothing of the 
kind. We give in figure 2 a grain of this 
Polish wheat, by the side of a very good 
sample of common wheat, which serves to 
show their relative size and shape. We are 
now, and all the time, in favor of the intro¬ 
duction of any valuable new seeds, whether of farm 
or garden crops, and will do all that we can to make 
all meritorious things—wherever they may origi¬ 
nate—known to our readers. But we have the right 
to insist—on behalf of the farming community— 
that these “novelties” shall be introduced under 
their proper names. When Mr. Oement, of Bradley 
Co., Tenn., offers as “ Something New,” “ Our Big 
Fig. 2. 
Seed Wheat—Wheat of Taos,”—“ Taos ” being the 
one-horsey-est of all the “one-horse” towns in New 
Mexico,—and Mr. Tipton, of the same Co., Tenn., 
offers “Diamond Spring Wheat,” “claimed to be 
imported from Chili,” and when we compare the 
“Big Seed Wheat,” and the “Diamond Spring 
Wheat” under the microscope, and can not tell 
“one from t’other, or t’other from which,” we begin 
to think that the seed business in Tennessee is 
rather mixed. Moreover, when we take Tipton’s 
engraving of his “ Diamond Spring Wheat,” with 
the stalk end pointing to the right hand, and place 
it over Osment’s cut of “ Big Seed Wheat,” with 
the stalk end at the left hand, and hold them up to 
the light, and find them to be one and the same en¬ 
graving, we wonder—yes, very much do we wonder 
—that two such remarkable wheats should be so I 
much alike. But our wonder as to the wheats of 
said Osment and Tipton is as nothing, when we 
contemplate their com. What wonderful seeds 
these Bradley Co. people have ! We do not propose j 
to advertise them until we have tried their com, of 
which we have a supply from headquarters, but 
when their corn gives us, according to circular, 
“from 4to 14 large size ears on every stalk,” we 
shall gladly announce the fact. In the meanwhile, 
we advise farmers in general to touch all these won¬ 
derful seeds gently. With these, as with all other 
novelties, we say —go slow. If disposed to test them, 
invest only what you can afford to lose. If they 
prove to be of any value,a small sum should give you 
enough to supply you with seed for another year. 
