THE CULTIVATOR: 
A ^Monthly Publication, devoted to Agriculture—eac\\ Xo. \>ages. 
Vol. III. ALBANY, SEPTEMBER, 1836.—(67 State-street.) No. 7. 
PUBLISHED BY THE N. Y. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
J. BUEL, Conductor. 
TERMS.— Fifty Cents per annum, to be paid in advance. 
Special Agents .— Judah Dobson, Philadelphia—Messrs. Hovey, Boston— 
George C. Thorburn and Alexander Smith, New-York. Any gentlemen 
who will enclose us $5, free of postage, will be considered also a special agent, 
and will be entitled to every eleventh copy, or its equivalent, as commission. 
[O’ The Cultivator, according to the decision of the Post-master General, is 
subject only to newspaper postage, viz: one cent on each number within the 
stale, and within one hundred miles from Albany, out of the state—and one 
and a half cents on each number, to any other part of the Union. 
_ THE CULTIVATOR. _ 
To improve the Soil and the Mind. 
THE CROPS. 
In a recent excursion to the western borders of the state, we took 
much pains to ascertain, from the best sources, the probable average 
of the wheat crop. The result of these inquiries is a conviction, 
that west of Cayuga Lake, the product does not exceed half a 
fair average crop; that in Cayuga and Onondaga, the proportion di¬ 
minishes to a third, and that in Oneida it will not be one-quarter of 
the quantity required for the population of the county. These coun¬ 
ties embrace the great wheat district of our state. The causes of 
failure have been, a snowy winter, which smothered much of the 
grain, a wet spring, the hessian fly, and lastly, we suspect to some 
extent, the grain-worm. This insect has been detected about Ge¬ 
neva and Ithaca, and we doubt not it has tended to diminish the pro¬ 
duct east of those places, as the farmers, not being sensible that the 
enemy was among them, omitted to look for it in their wheat fields 
till it had fallen and boroughed in the ground. The two first enu¬ 
merated causes seem, however, principally to have operated to les¬ 
sen the crop, and particularly the wet spring. 
The corn crop seems diminutive in quantity, inferior in quality, and 
unpromising in product. An early frost would cause an almost total 
failure of a sound crop. We would repeat our advice, to harvest 
this crop as soon as the mass of the ears are glazed, as a means of 
making most both of the corn and the fodder. 
We remarked, that both the wheat and com crops looked best 
where the surface was most undulating and hilly, and better to¬ 
wards the heads than near the outlets of the small lakes. The cause 
of this is apparent. The heavy rains of May and June completely 
saturated the soil; so that where it was stiff, or reposed upon a te¬ 
nacious subsoil, and the surface flat or but slightly sloping, the ground 
became virtually a concealed marsh, producing deleterious effects 
upon the wheat, and preventing the early working of the com ground. 
We are pursuaded, from its beneficial effects in our own grounds, 
that had a thorough system of under-draining been previously adopt¬ 
ed upon many farms we saw, the expense of draining would have been 
nearly made-up to the proprietors in the increased products of the 
past season. Although it may seem paradoxical, we are persuaded, 
and will hereafter endeavor to show, that under-draining, by render¬ 
ing the soil more pervious to atmospheric and solar influences, is alike 
calculated to counteract the effects of drought and habitual wetness. 
The potato crop was suffering there, as here, from drought. The 
tubers were small, and the hopes of an abundant cro|t were dimin¬ 
ishing. Peas, oats and grass were abundant and heaVy. Buck¬ 
wheat looked well, though apprehensions were entertained that it 
would suffer from early frost and the dry weather. Slight frosts 
had been already experienced in some districts. In Seneca and 
Tompkins counties, large quantities of flax were being cut with the 
cradle or scythe, cultivated principally for the seed. 
A correspondent near Trenton, N. J. writes thus: 
“ I yesterday had the product of ten acres of wheat threshed, and 
obtained 60 bushels. In an adjoining field of about equal fertility, I 
last year had at the rate ot 22 bushels the acre. Sixteen acres of 
rye averages about two bushels the acre, and is much better than 
some of my neighbors. One of them sowed ten bushels of wheat on 
good ground, and obtained but five bushels. The snow and the fly 
together destroyed our prospects of winter grain. Oats are good. 
KO. 7 . -VOL. III. 
Mine yielded 40 bushels the acre. Maize, where the first planting 
stood well, is setting an unusual number of ears; but the season 
has been so cold and damp, that they seem likely to be small, and if 
early frosts should come the crop will generally be light.” 
From a review of the information from all the states bordering on 
the Atlantic, it is very evident, that the crops of bread-corn are un¬ 
commonly deficient; that prices must consequently be high, and that 
but for the probability of our receiving heavy importations of grain 
from Europe, the prospect of a scarcity would he alarming. With 
these prospects before us, it becomes a matter of duty, as well as of 
interest, to husband well our means, and to endeavor, by prudence 
and economy, to avert the evils which threaten, at least the indigent 
classes of our population, the coming winter. 
CHESS, OR CHEAT. 
We received, the same day, from W. R. Cahoon, of Dover, Del. 
and from Ed. Wilbur, of Pittsford, N. Y. inquiries as to the origin 
and character of chess—whether it is a distinct species of plant, pro¬ 
duced only from its land, or a diseased, imperfect wheat. This has 
been a long controverted 'question; and although it has been well 
settled, in the minds of those who have become partizans in the con¬ 
troversy, it has so happened, that the opinions have been equally 
confident upon both sides ! It would be presumption in us to assume 
the office of umpire, as we have made no special observation or experi¬ 
ments with a view to solve the question; but as we feel called upon 
to respond to the inquiry in some way, we will offer a few conside¬ 
rations which, at present, incline us to the opinion, that wheat is 
transformed into chess, or rather that chess is diseased wheat, with¬ 
out intending, however, to be drawn into further controversy in the 
matter. 
Naturalists class wheat under the genus trilicum, and chess un¬ 
der that of bromus; and they contend, what we are not prepared to 
deny, that one genus or species of ptants, never assumes, from dis¬ 
ease or malformation, the character of another genus or species of 
plants ; and that hence wheat cannot generate chess. On the other 
hand, there are many practical farmers, and some of them philoso¬ 
phers too, who insist that wheat is mutable, and liable to change in¬ 
to chess;—that chess does grow, with wheat, where no chess has 
been sown, and where none existed in the soil; that where the soil 
is clean, and the seed pure, chess is not found in other farm crops, 
and that hence chess must be degenerate wheat, capable of germi¬ 
nation and reproduction. One or two things is implied in the latter 
opinion;—either that naturalists have erred in classing chess with 
the family bromus, and in considering it a species, or that there are 
exceptions to general laws in vegetable physiology. We will not 
pretend to discuss these points, but proceed to state, in a brief man¬ 
ner, some facts, which we can account for in no other way, than by 
adopting the opinion we have expressed. 
1. In wheat fields, chess most abounds where the wheat is in the 
most unhealthy condition—most in those spots where the wheat, for 
want of due pulverization of the soil, or from wetness, is most thin and 
sickly, and least where the soil is mellow and dry, and the crop most 
thick and healthy. If chess originated only from chess, it would be 
equally distributed ; and would not particularly, and sometimes al¬ 
most exclusively abound, where the ground has been but partially 
tilled, as upon the margin of the field, about stumps, and in low 
damp places. When chess is found in other crops, as it often is, 
being sown with the seed, it shows itself alike in every part of the 
field. 
2. Upon a farm belonging to us, and occupied by a tenant, eight 
or ten acres of fallow were sown with select pure seed. The pro¬ 
duct was about 80 bushels of chess, and less than half that quantity 
of wheat. The soil wt& c adapted to wheat, and believed to be per¬ 
fectly clean. 
3. In the Farmers’ Register for January, of the current year, 
Thomas C. Nelson, states,“that a wheat field belonging to him, self- 
sown, in consequence of the crop having been destroyed by a hail¬ 
storm, just before harvest, and not subsequently ploughed, which 
looked well in February, turned out to be “ all chess,” and gave him 
