THE CULTIVATOR. 
I- 
=P8 
Wheat Culture-Queries. 
Messrs. Editors — I have noticed in almost every number of 
the Cultivator, something in relatiou to wheat and rye produ¬ 
cing (or turning to) chess. But never until your Nov. number ap¬ 
peared, had I supposed it possible that oafs would produce chess. 
Nor do I believe it now. I wish, however, to tell you what I do 
know, in regard to wheat producing chess. But in the first 
place allow me to state, that I am the individual who presented 
to Mr. Goodsell, (the then editor of the Genesee Farmer,) that 
famous head of wheat from which was growing apparently seve¬ 
ral grains of chess. I never was a believer in the transmutation 
of wheat to chess until that specimen was placed in my hands. 
It was a head accidentally discovered, in mowing away a load 
of wheat in the straw. But I have said enough of this. Now 
let me tell you, that this much I do know; I had a field of some 
ten acres of wheat, that came up and grew quite large before 
winter set in. In the couse of the winter I had occasion to sled 
a large quatity of timber from an adjoining wood, across this 
field. My neighbors told me that wherever I made my path 
across the field, there my wheat would be all chess. Not believ¬ 
ing in the doctrine, I concluded to run the risk; but harvest 
time told the story, and it’s this, and precisely as my friends told 
me. I had very little wheat but a most luxuriant growth of 
chess. But don’t throw my communication under the table in 
disgust yet. 
There is another fact, about a part of this same wheat field, 
which placed matters in a different, light. I had procured one 
quart of a new variety of spring wheat , and wishing to give it 
a fair trial, I had reserved four square rods of ground from one 
side of this same field, intending to give it an early plowing 
(though it had been prepared alike with the rest,) and then sow 
on my spring wheat. But living or rather staying, in an old 
log house, 1 found to my regret, that before spring the rats had 
made way with every grain of it. The consequence was, the 
four square rods of ground remained without being plowed, or in 
any way cultivated ; and although the sled path was not within 
twenty rods of this piece, and not a single grain of wheat or 
rye, oats, or any other grain sown upon it, yet still I had from 
this same piece, six large sheaves or bundles of chess fully ma¬ 
tured, and which when thrashed and cleaned, weighed to the 
bushel,only five pounds and fourteen ounces less than oats. I have 
noticed that many of your correspondents have clearly shown 
(at least in their opinion,) various ways in which wheat is made 
to produce chess. But how, I ask, (and the question is to such 
as believe in transmutation,) how came it about that this 
piece of ground which had not been sown with any kind of 
grain for five years, produced this crop of chess? Did it spring 
from nothing ? or from seed that had lain deposited in the soil, 
(the result of former bad management,) and which only needed 
to be brought to light and heat, or near the surface, that it might 
vegetate ? Another fact; a piece of timbered land, that I caused 
to be cleared in mid-winter, (lay adjoining an old neglected, 
though formerly cultivated field,) and on which, no grass or 
grain had ever grown,the next summer was covered with a rank 
growth of fire-weed, so called, interspersed with chess, but more 
particularly along the margin of the old field; did this fire-weed 
and chess spring from nothing? or from seed long since deposi¬ 
ted? One more fact and I’ll weary your patience no longer. 
Another field of two acres, was cleared of a very heavy growth 
of timber, without the least under-brush , and the next summer 
there started up a most luxuriant growth of the hazle bush in¬ 
termixed with chess, as perfect as ever grew in any wheat field; 
now, agreeably to the doctrine of transmutation, the hazle and 
the chess, in this instance, must have grown from the muti¬ 
lated stumps and roots of the various kinds of trees, most un¬ 
ceremoniously browsed off by the woodman’s axe. 1. have seen 
nothing yet advanced that bears the semblance of proof, that 
wheat, rye, oats, or barley, can be made to produce the grain 
known as chess. W. WADS WORTH, Jr. 
Oerkshires and Woburns, 
Messrs. Editors —Since my return home, I have had my at¬ 
tention called to Dr. Martin’s article on the Woburn swine, 
page 143 of September No. of Cultivator, in which I see he claims 
a great superiority over the Berkshires in easiness of keep, by 
auoting a couple of sentences from a communication of mine in 
April No. page 67, under caption of “ Manner of Feeding Stock 
in" Ohio,” in contradistinction to a trial made by him with his 
Woburn sow Marion. 
Dr. Martin will permit me to say, to begin with, that I think 
his supposed triumph, if triumph it can be called, is both petty 
and disingenuous, and his argument the same. When he shall 
have taken twenty-two sows in the heat of summer, averaging 
the weight of those alluded to, roving about ad libitum in a 
twenty acre arid grass pasture to feed, instead of one animal 
closely confined in a pen, the experiment will look a little more 
equal. Again, he only states but the half of my communication 
upon feed. , . , , 
If he will condescend to look at the article once more, he will 
see that I was arguing against the great loss in feeding whole 
corn instead of grinding it into meal, and he might have gone on 
with a little more fairness, and added the further part about 
ship-stuffs. Now these only cost in the ratio of four and a half 
to one of corn, and yet it is my opinion that they would have 
gone as far in the manner they were led, to keep swine in store 
order, bushel for bushel, as did the corn. Stating the argument 
in this light, the Woburn would have been beaten ; but Dr. M. 
does not say whether his corn was fed whole, or whether it was 
made up into mush ; if the latter, he can’t but know, that it will 
make a difference of at least fifty per cent. 
As soon as my article appeared, my brother wrote to me in 
Ohio, stating that the amount, four bushels of corn per day for 
twenty-two swine, was monstrous ; that I must have been mis¬ 
taken in the quantity, and wished my attention to it. I thought 
I had entered the experiment of feeding upon my farm journal, 
but on searching now I cannot find it; but the head man, who 
has the care of the stock, asserts that it was only three bushels 
per day with the corn alone, and one-half a bushel with the ship- 
stuffs He is a careful, candid man, and as he was one of the 
two that assisted in feeding it out, I have no doubt that he 
remembers better than I did, with so many other affairs upon 
my mind; but be this as it may, after making the assertion, 1 
am willing to abide by it, mistake or no mistake. But Dr. Mar¬ 
tin will have the goodness to make a similar experiment, on an 
equal number of Woburns, of equal weight to my Berkshires, in 
the month of August, and on dry, hard, old, whole corn. What 
led me to make this trial, was the seeing in the manure of my 
animals quite half of their food come out whole, and lie rotting 
upon the ground: my argument went to show, that there was 
great economy, at least with us here, in grinding the grain be¬ 
fore feeding it. . 
But another trial that I made in keeping Berkshires was last 
March and to middle of April, in Ohio. Eleven head of sows, 
weighing from 303 to 384 pounds, averaging probably 350 pounds 
each, were kept without shelter in an open field, when no grass 
had started, by Mr. Joseph Sullivant of Columbus, for me. The 
direction to his man Cyrus, was at first to feed them one bushel 
per day ; but on this it was soon found that they were gaining 
too rapidly for good breeding, when they were cut down to 
three-fourths of a bushel per day, and still on this it became 
apparent that they were getting too fat, and had not Mr. Ma¬ 
llard of Cincinnati, came up and purchased most of them, 14th 
April, I should have then cut them down to one-balf a bushel 
tier day which, in the opinion of Mr. S and all who saw them 
fed, would have been amply sufficient to have kept them in good 
breeding order. The kernels of the Ohio corn being much larg¬ 
er and softer than ours at the north, I found that the swine 
ground it finer in eating, and more easily and thoroughly digest¬ 
ed it than during the preceding August when fed at home; there 
would, of course, be the same, or perhaps a greater, difierence 
in favor of Kentucky whole corn. 
Allowing Dr. Martin’s weight of 55 pounds to the bushel, this 
would have been just five pounds per day each, when fed one 
bushel. At three-fourths of this amount, it would have been 
three pounds twelve ounces each per day; and at one-half a bu¬ 
shel, two and a half pounds. Marion, a young eleven months 
Woburn sow, it seems eat a fraction over four pounds ten 
ounces per day, sheltered and close confined, which all know 
makes a great difference in favor of a less consumption of food. 
I am sorry that I cannot add the amount of gain of the above 
animals during this time. I only know their weight when sold, 
as we were obliged to weigh them before going on board canal 
boat for Portsmouth, to render the same to the collector on 
which to calculate the tolls. 
As to all the other of Dr. Martin’s experiments, Woburns vs. 
Berkshires, I will add, that I consider them as really too trifling 
to have been made that detail of in the agricultural papers that 
he has seen fit to do. His feeding against Mr. Fanning, of the 
Tennessee Agriculturist, was thus: Mr. F.’spigs were from the 
first litter of rather a small young Berkshire, while Dr. Martin’s 
was from a large old one, of course the latter had the advantage 
all in his favor, even supposing that the breeds had been the 
same ; joined to this, he is a much more experienced feeder than 
Mr. F. which makes another wide difierence. But it seems that 
Dr. M.’s Woburns have been easily beaten on his own princi¬ 
ples, at least once this season; see late Nos. of the Cultivator; 
and Mr. George Hezlep of Ohio, gave me the weights of three 
pigs at eight months three days old, a cross of the Berkshires 
on the common hog of the country, that without any particular 
pains, weighed, respectively, 300, 312, and 318 pounds. Bernice, 
four days older, weighed 354 pounds, fed with all possible art, 
probably wheat bread and milk, and sugar, lard, fat, boiled 
mush, meat, &c. For the trial of feeding, gain of most pounds 
for their food, page 179 of November’s Cultivator, detailed by 
Mr. Weathers, it seems there were two against one, and it might 
be about as fair as the poor miserable stunted Berkshire boar 
that Dr. Martin keeps, as I am told, and shows off against his 
great fat Woburns. Before this readies the press, I shall pro¬ 
bably have made a flying visit to Kentucky, when it is my inten¬ 
tion to look over the Woburns, and if their advocates are desi¬ 
rous then of making a trial against the Berkshires, if I can get 
a few of my late imported ones safely on, they will find me quite 
ready to feed their stock and crosses on the Ohio hog, in any 
sort of fashion they may please, either weight against consump¬ 
tion of food, or weight against time. But for my own part, I 
am yet to learn what Woburns are. Those bred formerly on the 
Duke of Bedford’s estate, have long since run out, and when in 
England, I saw more than twenty different kinds of hogs called 
by this name, and the same will be seenhere in our own country, 
and by Dr. Martin’s figures of his swine exhibited in the late 
Nos. of the Cultivator, they are just as various in shape and ap¬ 
pearance as there are different animals represented. 1 have 
conversed with many persons from Ohio and Kentucky, who 
have repeatedly seen Dr. Martin’s Woburns, and also kept 
them, and out of all, I only found two who advocated them in 
preference to the Berkshires, and these two persons simply be¬ 
cause they were the largest; but now those who have seen one 
of my late importation, Windsor Castle, say that he is as large 
as the largest of Woburns, and infinitely finer in all his points. 
He started a few days since, under the care of Mr. Hendrickson 
of Middletown, Butler county, Ohio, and if the Woburns have 
any boasts to make now, if he gets on safe, he will be close in 
their neighborhood; let them come onand show themselves ; he 
is quite ready, out of condition as he may be, from his long voy¬ 
ages. Hagbourn, and some young ones yet unnamed, will re¬ 
main here, and I fancy when full grown, they will not be 
afraid to fash their beards along side of any thing short of a 
Kenilworth. Truly yours, A. B. A. 
Culture of Wheat. 
Messrs. Gaylord k Tucker —A few words on the culture of 
wheat. As that is, with many, the principal article of produce 
and profit, those means should be used which would secure the 
greatest yield of grain. How often do we hear it remarked, 
that the land does not produce the crops of wheat that it once 
did, and they wonder what is the cause. One says, “ the land 
has become too poor.” Another, with Mr. J. Johnston, in the 
July number of the Cultivator, remarks that it “is getting too 
rich for wheat,” “ the best of wheat land here is getting too 
much clover, barn-yard manure,” &c. Now I am satisfied that 
they are both partly right. The land is, in too many instances, 
getting too poor, by a miserable system of farming, or rather 
by no system at all; the land is nearly worn out before any 
manure is thought of; one crop after another is taken away 
without the least idea of returning any thing to the soil; and 
after years of such culture, the farmer is surprised that the 
yield is not so great as formerly. Again, in one sense the land 
is getting too rich for wheat. By another but false system of 
farming, and by a misunderstanding of the true use of manures, 
a succession of crops is taken from the land, and clover, barn¬ 
yard manure, &c. bestowed liberally in return ; by those means 
encouraging a large growth of straw, not considering that that 
which enters very materially into the formation of the berry, 
lime, and of which large quantities are removed with every 
crop of grain, is not returned to the soil. Evidently the only 
true system of manuring would be that which would return to 
the ground those substances which the growing crops absorb, 
in as nearly the same proportion they are removed as possi¬ 
ble, and by those means returning the soil to the same state as 
when it brought the best crops. 
A Farm Gate. 
V 
I herewith take the liberty to send a sketch of a gate, which 
I have had in use for several years, and which, although equal¬ 
ly as simple, is yet in many points superior to many that I have 
seen. Its peculiar construction effectually prevents the settling 
of any part of it, and by its simple hangings, the gate itself can 
be speedily adjusted, should the post be moved by frost or 
otherwise. The slats and braces are made of f inch stuff, 4 
inches wide. The brace A, is let in on the face of the two end 
pieces in a dove-tail form, and nailed. The brace B, on the op¬ 
posite side of the gate, is also let in its own thickness, but the 
ends are sawed square as dotted in the figure. The end pieces 
are 3 by 4 inch scantling, one 6 feet 4 inches and the other 8 
feet long, and the space between the slats is as follows, begin¬ 
ning at the bottom—4, 4, 6, 8 and 10 inches, which will make the 
gate 5 feet high. The gate is hung by its bottom, being set into 
a piece of timber which is morticed into the posts just at the 
surface of the ground, and by its top being let through the piece 
C. The top of the post K, is made into a tenon 1 j inches thick, 
and the cross piece C, has a corresponding mortice of sufficient 
length to admit of the two wedges W, \V, which are intended 
to raise or lower the gate. The latch is also of wood, of which 
a side view is given at 2, which shows the gate nearly shut. 
The end of the gate is intended to shut against the post, so that 
the latch which works loosely on the pin P, may play between 
the slats S, S. Its shape is such, that as the gate shuts, the 
lower one of the two slats raises the latch, until it is past the 
notch, when the upper one forces it down, thus always prevent¬ 
ing the gate from flying open when suddenly slammed shut. 
This latch too, effectually prevents the gate from being opened 
by hogs or cattle. A. V. D. 
Clayton county, Iowa Territory , 1841. 
Importation of Cattle. 
Messrs. Editors —I have read with some interest Mr. Allen’s 
sketch of what he had done during his trip to England,given in the 
last number of the Cultivator, and wish to express my convic¬ 
tion of the general justness of his remarks on the subject of 
Short Horns and Horses. Of the first, he says, “ of the Short 
Horns I brought nothing for fear of the disease so prevalent 
throughout England; and because there is but one man’s herd 
there that can improve our own;” and of the second, he adds, 
“ for horses, England ought to come to us. She has nothing 
that can compare with our famous trotters; and our Dutch 
Pennsylvania wagon horses are far preferable in my estimation, 
to her boasted cart horses.” 
It has been matter of surprise to me, that the subject of dan¬ 
ger from the introduction of the disease which has been for two 
years so fatal to cattle in almost every part of Great Britain, 
by the importation of animals infected, has not been sooner 
brought before the agricultural public. I venture to assert, that 
should the epidemic appear here with the same fatality as there, 
the damage to the country would be estimated by millions of 
dollars. It was years in traversing Poland, the north of Ger¬ 
many, &.C. before it found its way into France and Britain, and 
in the last of these countries it has been much more destruc¬ 
tive than in the former. It appears, like the cholera, to have 
traveled westward, although the place of its origin is unknown. 
At the close of 1840, it seemed to have mostly passed from Eng¬ 
land, but still raged in Scotland and Ireland; but the London 
Veterinarian of September, a work of authority, now before me. 
says, “with regard to the epidemic among cattle, sheep, and 
pigs, we regret to say, that in many parts of the country it has 
appeared afresh, and is as virulent and infectious as before.” 
Of the infectious nature of the disease, the instances given in 
the Veterinarian are perfectly conclusive, and the cause of its 
reappearance is thus stated: “ A great number of Irish aud 
Scotch cattle are brought into this country (England) twice a 
year—in the autumn for the strawyard ; and in "the spring for 
grazing purposes. These cattle arrive in large uroves, and are 
sold to a great many farmers in small lots. There are very few 
of these droves among which some diseased cattle are not to 
be found ; purchasers take these infected cattle, ignorant they 
are thus diseased, and the infection is thus communicated to 
whole herds. These droves have been the means of the disease 
spreading wider and more rapidly than all other causes put 
together.” 
The following extract from the circular prepared by Professor 
Sewall, at the request of the Royal Agricultural Society, on the 
nature of the epidemic, See . will show the usual appearance of 
animals attacked. “The attack does not always commence in 
the same form, but ultimately terminates in a general disease 
of the same type and characters. In some animals it com¬ 
mences in the feet between the claws, and in others it appears 
to have begun in the mouth ; in others stiffness in the legs of the 
animal is first perceived, as if treading upon thorns or briers; 
then follows a discharge of saliva from the mouth, and a champ¬ 
ing of the lips, accompanied with blisters on the tongue, palate, 
and lips; the blisters peel off, loss of appetite, general debility, 
and not unfrequently death ensues.” 
From the description here given it would seem to have resem¬ 
bled the disease called the black tongue, which was so fatal 
among horses a number of years since, (and which by 
the way, according to the English journals prevailed exten¬ 
sively in that country in 1836,) but which did not here extend 
to other animals. A number of instances are reported, in 
which the meat of diseased animals has been sold with fa¬ 
tal effect to those who partook of it in England, thus prov¬ 
ing that like some other diseases of animals, the glanders 
for example, it may be communicated or pTove puisoncrus 
to the human subject. It has occurred to me that the case of 
mortality in calves, recorded by Mr. Merrick, at page 176, of the 
current volume of the Cultivator, does not vary essentially 
from the disease as it has appeared in Britain, according to the 
foreign journals. I may add that the disease developing itself 
so rapidly as to render it nearly impossible an infected animal 
should reach our shores without exhibiting the complaint une¬ 
quivocally, will be our great safe guard so long as the frequent 
importation of animals contiues; and I will suggest that no 
new imported animal of any kind, cattle, sheep, or swine, as 
all these are attacked abroad, should be suffered to run with 
others, until a sufficient time has elapsed to prove his freedom 
from the prevailing epidemic. 
The same danger from disease, does not exist in the importa¬ 
tion of horses, as in that of cattle; but the necessity, for the 
sake of improvement, it is clear to all who have seen the best 
specimens of imported horses, or traveled abroad, does not 
have an existence. There cannot in England or Scotland, be 
found a breed of horses equal for both road and field laboi to 
the Morgan horse of Vermont, or the Pennsylvania team hors-. 
To be at the expense of importing is idle, when we have supe¬ 
rior materials at home, which was not the case with our cattk, 
sheep, and swine. As to the race horse, 1 consider him out of tht 
question. The less we have of them the better ; and Prof. Lind- 
ly never uttered a more indisputable truth, than when he said 
that “if racing improved horses, it deteriorated man.” There 
cannot be an instance pointed out in which a valuable breed, 
or even a valuable permanent cross has originated from the 
modern race horse proper. Their structure demonstrates their 
worthlessness for any thing but the turf, and there let them re¬ 
main. In the United States, the horse wanted is one, of which 
a span will plow of turf land three-fourths, or an acre per day, 
or travel thirty miles a day with forty bushels of wheat; one 
possessing form, weight, wind, activity, and such we have al¬ 
ready, and may multiply and improve at our pleasure. As a 
farmer, I have looked at the success of our importations of 
useful animals with pleasure, because I saw in them the foun¬ 
dation of immense agricultural improvement; but it is a pecu¬ 
liar trait of American character to overdo a good thing, and I 
am not certain we are not approaching that piont in our rage for 
importations. At any rate it may be well to pause and look about 
a little, count the cost and estimate the probable results. Oc¬ 
casional importations may be needed for the purpose of cross¬ 
ing ; but we have breeds of all improved animals, of such wide¬ 
ly different origin, that if our breeders understand their busi¬ 
ness, deterioration can hardly ensue; on the contrary they 
start on a high vantage ground, and if they fail, it must be 
through their own remissness. An 0«onD»ox Farmer. 
