104 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
March, 
neous production, and I heard one man declare that 
it was brough in by a Yankee pedlar, and sold for 
xed clover seed—his father having purchased some 
ef the seed which proved to be white. It doubt¬ 
less proved a profitable speculation to the vender, 
such an one as Yankees are apt to engage in, as 
white clover seed is only worth from four to eight 
times as much as red ! 
With these few prefatory remarks by way of in¬ 
troduction, as the writers say, I shall now proceed 
to relate my experience in the transmutation of wheat 
into chess. 
In the fall of 1846, my father, with whom I was 
then living, sowed about ten acres in wheat. The 
ground had not been in wheat for some eight years 
before. The seed was so clear of chess that it was 
extremely difficult to find a grain. When harvest 
time came round, and the wheat was harvested and 
got out, the yield was only about six bushels to the 
acre, owing to its having been so badly frozen out in 
the winter. There were spots of a yard square or 
more perfectly bare of wheat. But where there 
was any thing, it was either wheat, or weeds of 
some kind, or timothy, which had been sown on the 
ground in the winter. There was scarcely a bunch 
of chess to be found in the whole field. 
While the farmers generally were lamenting that 
their wheat had frozen out and turned to chess, or 
cheat, as it is called here, ours had frozen out as 
bad as any, but it had not turned to cheat. This 
was a poser to the transmutationists, whose atten¬ 
tion was directed to the subject. 
Divers were the reasons advanced and supposi¬ 
tions ventured in accounting for so unheard-of a 
phenomena as that of wheat freezing out and not 
turning to chess ! Failing to convince the anties of 
the soundness of their doctrine, they would usually 
wind up by citing some half dozen eases, where 
clean seed had been sown upon clean ground, and a 
pretty fair crop of chess gathered in place of wheat. 
In the fall of 1847, we sowed about twelve acres 
out of the wheat grown that year, a part on new- 
ground, and the balance on old ground, that had 
not been in wheat for eight or ten years. We raised 
a good crop of w r hoat and no chess, or not more than 
could be chargeable to the few seeds that had been 
sown. In the fall of 1848, we sow’ed, between us, 
about 45 acres, out of the -wheat grown that year, 
still as clear of chess as when we began with it in ’46. 
Mine, some 15 acres, was very badly frozen out, so 
much so that had it escaped the rust, it would not 
have yielded more than five or six bushels to the 
acre; as it was, it was not worth cutting. A por¬ 
tion of my father’s w T as also badly frozen out. Yet, 
notwithstanding the havoc made by the frost, the 
transmutationist’s principal agent in the conversion 
of wheat into chess, I have no idea that in the whole 
45 acres there could have been gathered a quart of 
clean chess. 
Now these are facts, and facts, like certain long¬ 
eared animals, are said to be “ stubborn things.” 
As to the question whether or not wheat may. 
can, will, or does turn to chess, I shall not protend 
to decide, either pro or con ; but would merely re¬ 
mark that in the course of iny observation, I have 
found that those who are firm believers in the doc¬ 
trine of transmutation, and consider it unnecessary 
to be very particular about cleaning their seed 
wheat, have their faith confirmed very often by their 
wheat turning to chess; while those who take the 
common sense view of the matter, that chess, like 
every other vegetable production, comes from the 
seed and no where else, and act accordingly , sowing 
clean seed on clean ground, seldom, if ever, have to 
lament over their wheat turning to chess.* 
Farmers generally have very vague and confused 
notions of the nature of chess. In the first place it 
is one of the most accomodating plants that grow. 
You may sow a gallon of the seed, in conjunction 
with a bushel and a-lialf of wheat, and if the wheat 
comes up and meets with no casualty, it will cover 
the ground, and you will scarcely see a head of the 
chess at harvest, over 6 inches in height. It is fre¬ 
quently seen in such cases not more than two or 
three inches high, with one or two fully developed 
grains on the top. But let the wheat be destroyed 
by freezing out, or grazing, and the chess, ready to 
fill its place, branches out, grows luxuriantly, and 
produces a glorious crop. Secondly, it is one of the 
hardiest plants in the world. The seed is in a man¬ 
ner indigestible, and is generally as capable of 
germination after passing through the stomach 
of animals, as before; and it may lie in the ground 
for years, under unfavorable circumstances, and 
when brought to the surface it will germinate and 
grow. Freezing seems to have no effect upon the 
plant, and grazing but very little. Thirdly and 
lastly, it is one of the most prolific of plants. 
My curiosity prompted me one day last summer, to 
count the seed on a common sized bunch of chess. 
Their number was 2,607. Supposing each grain 
capable of producing this number, and I have no 
doubt that it can, with any thing like a fair chance, 
such as having the wheat frozen out or destroyed in 
any way, and the increase of a single grain in three 
years, will amount to the enormous quantity of 37,- 
718,342,543 grains. Jas. R. Hammond. Shandy 
Hall, Cooper Co., Mo., Nov. 22, 1849. 
Rural ©conomg. f 
Profits of Dairying. 
Eds. Cultivator —As thy columns are filled up 
with modes and results of farming, I take the liber¬ 
ty to send a statement for publication, of the man¬ 
ner I have conducted my dairy, and the proceeds 
of the same for the year 1849. 
My dairy consists of 30 cows, most of which are 
of common breed, though few are part Devonshire. 
They were fed as follows: on hay and upland pas¬ 
ture, with all the whey, except enough to rear three 
calves, and partially fatten four hogs. In addition, 
I fed during the season, sixty bushels of corn and 
oat meal, three-quarters of an acre of green corn, 
which, owing to the drouth, was not likely to come 
to maturity, and twelve loads of pumpkins, boiled 
and fed with whey, as was the meal. 
The following is my mode of making cheese: We 
strain the milk at night into a tin pan, which is sur¬ 
rounded by a wooden one, with a space of one and 
a-half inch which is filled with water. After the 
morning’s milk is put in, the whole is warmed to 
80° by steam, operating upon the water. After the 
rennet is well stirred in, let it stand forty minutes, 
then cut it coarsely; let it stand fifteen minutes, 
then cut it. finer, and raise the heat to 90°. Work 
it occasionally with the hand for thirty minutes; then 
* These remarks should 1 e remembered, as they show that faith, 
is in this case, a matter of practical importance. We have often 
inel with farmers who held the idea that chess, of itself, did not 
grow—it only came from wheat! Consequently, it was of “ no use 
to be particular” about sowing the seed. \ We know many persons, 
however who do not believe in transmutation, and these farmers, 
(and this is a fact well worthy the consideration of the believers in 
transmutation,) grow no chess on their farms, and never have occa¬ 
sion to complain of the change of their wheat to chess.— Eds. 
