318 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Oct. 
habits of farmers, as well as those of every other class, 
have improved. It is but a few years since alcoholic 
drinks were thought necessary to the laborer in the 
season of haying and harvesting. But a great change 
has taken place in this respect, and but few farmers 
persist in the use of such drinks. 
Cider-making and cider-drinking have been mostly 
confined to New-England and New-Jersey. When ci¬ 
der-drinking went out of fashion, the orchards at the 
west were mostly young, and they were grafted for the 
production of market fruit. But in New-England, or¬ 
chards, chiefly of natural fruit, have been growing for 
a century and a-half. The apples, our fathers thought 
were just fit for cider and for nothing else ; but it has 
since been proved that they were excellent for stock 
through the fall and winter. 
Twenty and twenty-five years ago, two-thirds of the 
farmers’ time in autumn, was spent in gathering apples 
and making cider. This caused a great neglect of 
other crops, and was time thrown away. The farmer 
filled his cellar with the cider, and carried what was 
left to the u still,” to be made into cider-brandy. It 
was not an uncommon thing in Connecticut, for the far¬ 
mer to have, not only a cider-mill, but a distillery also; 
and even to this day, I am sorry to say, there are some 
of these mills in operation—preparing poison and death 
to he scattered through the community. 
There are farmers engaged in this business who 
claim to be moral men; but I would ask them, if by 
pursuing this business, they are sustaining good order 
and improving the morals of the community ? If not, 
the business should be abandoned at once. I know the 
influence of self-interest—there is no interest like it. 
Of course it is this principle—-the desire of making mo¬ 
ney—that induces farmers to engage in this injurious 
traffic; and yet I am far from believing that this is a 
money-making business. The extreme low price at 
which cider sells, will hardly pay the expense of gath¬ 
ering the apples and making the cider. As to the price 
of cider-brandy, I know nothing; hut I know something 
of the moral desolation that, prevails in neighborhoods 
where it is extensively sold and drunk. 
In the early stages of the temperance reform, some 
farmers, who had great zeal for the cause, cut down 
thrifty orchards. This was a great mistake, as was 
afterwards seen. Of all fruits raised in New-England, 
the apple is the most useful. The best course which 
farmers can adopt with their old orchards, that bear 
only natural fruit, is to cut off the old top, and graft 
on a new one, with kinds suitable for market. Let all 
old and unthrifty trees be cut down. The healthy 
trees, with proper attention, wiil soon come into bear¬ 
ing. 
As to a market for fruit, there will always be a 
ready one for a century to come. L. Durand. Derby, 
Ct.," August 1, 1849. 
Transmutation of Wheat into Chess. 
Eds. Cultivator —The transmutation of wheat into 
chess, is doubted by many; and, from your remarks in 
the July number, I infer that you regard the matter as 
merely speculative, without any facts to warrant it. 
To my mind this question is most conclusively settled 
by evidence which has come under my own observation, 
and which cannot, in any way, be contested or set 
aside. With a view of settling this question, I send 
you the following fact, which you may dispose of as 
you think fit. 
Many years since, while I was yet a boy, I aided my 
father in the cultivation of his farm. He had a field 
of about ten acres which he concluded to sow in wheat. 
The ground was well manured in the fall and the 
wheat, sown at the usual time. It came up remarkably 
fine and looked exceedingly well, during the fall and 
throughout the spring. It was pastured, I believe, in 
the spring by the calves, in order to prevent it from 
becoming too rank and lodging. The time of heading 
at length arrived, but judge of the astonishment to find 
that this promising field of wheat was now one luxu¬ 
riant crop of chess —every stalk of wheat, with but 
few exceptions, was converted into a head of chess. 
There it stood; the wonder and amazement of all who 
examined it. 
And now what was to be done with it ? was the 
next question. It was finally concluded to mow it, be¬ 
fore it would get ripe, and feed it to the cattle for hay. 
This was an operation 'vjffiich I witnessed with my 
own eyes, so that I had every opportunity to satisfy 
my mind of the truth of this fact by personal obser¬ 
vation. From that time to the present I have never 
had the least doubt but what wheat may change 
into chess. Under what circumstances this may 
take place, or what the cause may be to produce 
this change, I do not pretend to say. I advance no 
theory or explanation of this remarkable fact. It is an 
undoubted truth wffiich cannot be called into question. 
Nor can you explain it away upon the supposition that 
the chess might have sprung up from the ground, and 
finally, supplanted the wheat. This assumption would 
only be throwing the difficulty further back, and not at 
all remove it. It would amount to this, the seed was 
wheat when sown, but it came up chess. It had been 
previously cleared by a fanning process, of every ap¬ 
pearance of chess, so that none, or very iittle was sown. 
w r ith the wheat, and the ground had been a clover field. 
You perceive, therefore, that this question is not 
11 without facts to warrant it,” but is substantiated by 
the “ most unequivocal and positive evidence.-” for I 
consider that one fact is enough to establish the ques¬ 
tion beyond doubt. A Gleaner of Agricultural 
Knowledge. Johnstown, Aug. 10th, 1849. 
We are willing to take the circumstances of the 
above supposed case of transmutation, just as they are 
related, protesting, however, against the conclusion. 
We are willing to admit that the ground spoken of was 
sowed to wheat which had u none or very little ” chess 
among, it, and that when the crop was cut, there was 
but very little wheat in it. But after these admissions 
the question rises—Did the chess come from chess, or 
did it come from wheat? Which is most reasonable, or 
most in accordance with known natural laws? All 
observation teaches that plants reproduce their own 
species—that they do not produce those of distinct 
genera or species. Now there is no necessity of 
violating this law to account for the production of chess 
in the above case; the thing can be done much easier 
in various other ways. The seed of the chess may 
have been partly carried on the ground in the manure, 
and more or less of it may have remained in the ground 
from former crops or plants of chess which had grown 
there. Chess is more hardy than wheat, and when the 
latter died out, the former spread and occupied its 
place. 
If our correspondent should visit any section of country 
and find it occupied by men, and on repeating his visit, 
after an interval, should find it occupied by monkies, he 
would hardly attempt to account for the change on the 
supposition that the men had been u converted ” into 
monkies-—even though he could not tell where the latter 
had come from, and yet this notion would not be more 
at variance with known physiological laws, than that 
of wheat changing to chess. Eds. 
Crops in New Hampshire. 
Eds. Cultivator —In regard to the crops in this vi- 
cinity, there is as a general thing, no good cause for 
complaint. It is true that on light sandy land the se¬ 
vere drouth has caused the grass and grain to be very 
