1851. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
53 
experiment, I put it on every alternate row—about 
a large spoonful to a hill. 
When I dug the potatoes, I weighed ten hills in a 
row, for 12 rows, through the most equal part of the 
field, and now give you the result, as follows: 
Dissolved Bones. Nothing. 
First row,...... 8| lbs. . lbs. 
- , Secondrow,................. ,7£. ............ 6£; 
Third row, ... J....... .....-... 7 
Fourth row, ......... 7J ............. • 6| 
Fifth row,.... 7£ .. 51 
l^throvv^................ 7^ ............ SI- 
47 lbs. 41 lbs. 
Making a difference in favor of the bones, of near 15 
per cent. The 100 pounds was used on every alter¬ 
nate row on three-fourths of an acre, making three- 
eighths of an acre, hills two by three feet apart, 
which gives 7,260 hills to an acre, or it was put on 
2,722 hills. The 60 hills without manure, made 41 
lbs, which, allowing 62lbs. for a bushel, would yield 
80 bushels to an acre, and the manured or boned 
part would, give 92 bushels to an acre; an increase 
of 12 bushels to an acre, which at 50 cents per 
bushel, (mine are selling quick at that,) would give 
an increase of $6 per acre. 
Allowing 60 lbs. of acid to 100 of bones, which I 
think would be sufficient, it would require 160 lbs. 
to an acre, and it may be bought in Boston, New- 
York or Hartford, for 2\ cents per lb,.$4 00 
Use of carboy,...... 25 
$4 25 
leaving $1.75 for tub, freight, trouble, &c. 
In this instance, one would be well paid for all 
trouble in the increased size of the potatoes. My child¬ 
ren, in their simplicity, remarked that they should 
suppose that one parcel was selected from the other. 
The crop was on a worn-out, sandy plain, without 
manuring, which will account for the smallness of 
the crop; but I think the strength of the manure 
is not all gone yet. 
It being dry weather when the paste was made use 
of, it soon became dry, like old mortar, and much 
of it remains so now. It has lost its acidity, and is 
porfectly tasteless. I think if I had mixed dry ashes, 
or something to absorb the moisture, and converted 
it into dry powder, so that it could have been more 
equally distributed, I should have had a much better 
result, and I think it would be still better to mix it 
with the earth, when the potatoes Were planted. As 
to Mr. Hutchins’ inquiry about the best method of 
dissolving bones, I think I should make a plank cis¬ 
tern, perhaps one foot deep, and place it below the 
surface of the ground, and. with a stout wooden sho- 
ven, with a handle 15 or 20 feet long, a person might 
stir it about, and turn it over with safety, and when 
the cistern is not in use, fill it with earth to preserve 
it from drying. I tried putting some of the paste, 
(perhpas a tea spoonful to each,) under some cab¬ 
bage plants, when I was transplanting, and where I 
put it, I have small heads, and where none was put 
I have no heads. 
I have endeavored, as much as possible, to give a 
correct statement of my experiment with bones, and 
am fully convinced that there are bones enough 
thrown away every year, to increase our potato-crop 
15 per cent, to say nothing of the after benefit. W. 
A. Ela. West Springfield , .Mass. 
-- »-©-* - 
Transmutation. 
Eds. Cultivator —Many years since, whilst har¬ 
vesting, I found a head of wheat, and out of the top 
of that head grew a sprig of chess. I know of many 
men in this and the adjoining county, who have found 
heads of wheat and chess, similar to the one here 
described, growing upon one and the same stalk. I 
would ask through your paper, how that stalk which 
produced part wheat and part chess, originated? 
Hid it spring from wheat, or from chess, or from 
both; or has “ an enemy done this?” Luther Ked- 
field. Clyde , Wayne county, N. Y. 
The above may be taken as a fair sample of scores 
of communications we have received on the same 
subject. The accompanying cut, we think, will show 
our correspondent “ how that stalk produced part 
wheat and part chess.” The chess was entangled 
in the wheat-head. We have seen several cases of 
this kind, which 
were brought for¬ 
ward as dem¬ 
onstrative proof 
that wheat had 
“turned” to 
chess; and tho’ 
we could never 
perceive that the 
notion of trans¬ 
mutation rested 
on any better 
foundation, it 
seems strange 
that its advocates 
should not have 
discovered that 
such examples af¬ 
ford them no sup 
port at all. 
The head of 
wheat and chess, 
of which the a- 
bove is a copy, 
was sent to the 
office of the Ge¬ 
nesee Farmer .— 
We are informed 
by that paper, 
that the man who 
left it, thought 
himself entitled 
to “the prize,” 
for having prov¬ 
ed that wheat and 
chess were both 
produced by the 
same stem. By 
close examina¬ 
tion, and bending 
down the chaff near the dotted line, the end of the 
chess stem could be plainly perceived, and it could 
