INDIANA   FARMER.
vol. n.]
Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, Mechanics and the Uaefal Art*.
[HO. 24.
D. P. Hollo war,
W. T. Dennis,
Editor,, j: '; RICHMOND, :IND., AUGUST 15, 1853;
Uollowar & Co.,
i . PtJULISHIK.
,:';'. Forthe Indiana Farmer.
Chess in "Wheat.
Messrs. Editors:   In perusing some late
numbers of your interesting publication, I notice that the old idea of wheat turning to chess,
is yet not altogether abandoned and forgotten,
but still has some advocates yet lingering in the
1 agricultural, if not scientific community.   -And
though incompetent arid unqualified for furnishing a scientific and satisfactory solution of the
operation of nature's mysterious and widely diversified laws, yet, on that subject, "I too have
an opinion"—an inference (regarded as ration
al) resulting from some, observation as well as
reflection.    And  whilst  often amused," I am
yet not convinced by any arguments I have
heard, nor by  any  reasonings I have read in
support'of the theory of wheat transmutation.
Neither is the evidence aatisfactoty and convincing, even in that case apparently so fairly
tested and reported by bur old and intelligent
friend, Solon Robinson, (Ind. Far. vol. 2, p.
316,) where "wheat sown on prairie, 30 miles
from any settlement, where nothing had been
previously! cultivated,   and   the   product  all
chess;" and ;where the conclusion in its favor
would seem almost inevitable, yot ov.n ibon
Mr. Bobinson does not assert as his belief; that
the wheat sown turned to chess, but only asks
to know "why it grew there, if the wheat did
not produce it?"   And this  experiment, with
all its presumptions, also harmonizes with and
corroborates a very different, and, as I regard,
more rational hypothesis, which, from its novi
elty, may appear equally.as amusing to others
as theirs of transmutation did to me.
Being assured from the testimony of those
who have experimented and written oh chem
ical science, that all fertile soils contain, as
elements of their fertility, "Alumina, oxide of
iron, lime, magnesia, potash, soda, chlorine,
sulphuric acid and soluble silicia." (Pat. office
reports, 1850, p. 44.) I understand, then, that
these inorganic elementary principles, or some
portion thereof, along with the organic ones of
carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen enter
to some extent, proportion or degree into the
composition of all vegetable productions. Prof.
Lawrence, on "Scientific Agriculture," savsthat
"that there is no plant that contains all these
substances, and there is none without some of
them. There is no doubt that the property or
quality of plants depends.in a great measure
upon the peculiarities of the inorganic elements
they contain. Each plant requires a certain
number, from one or two to five and six, and no
more, and it will have no others. Every plant
also requires a certain quantity of each of the
kinds of its choice, and it will receive no more
—nor will it be content to flourish with less."
(Ind. Far. vol. 2, p. 1.)
Dr. Lee, on "The critical study of the ele-
ements of fertility in soils," says, "The things
that feed and nourish plants and animals, that
constitute their whole weight and substance,
are ponderable matter. ' If these things were
equally abundant in all- soils, and equally
consumed in forming all crops, then all lands
in the same climate would be equally fertile.
But soils are not of equal fertility, nor are the
elements of plants consumed in equal quantities or supplied in equal parts.! And might he
not with propriety also have said that "were it
not for the differences that exist in the amount,
proportion and variety ol the .'salts' in the earth,
and of the 'gasses* in the atmosphere inthe
different climates, all fertile soils would equal,
ly produce the cotton and sugar cane ofthe
South—the wheat and oats of the North—with
the corn of the intermediate latitudes; and that
"where there is a deficiency existing, or an excessive" supply of these elementary principles in
the earth,, either condition must prove alike
unfavorable- to the germination and growth of
all vegetation, and unprofitable for immediate
agricultural purposes.       :V   V .
Regarding the earth, then, as the natural mo-
llici of all TmlcJ aud promiscuous productions,
I believe inthe" doctrine of cause and effect.
And whilst I regard an adequate cause as absolutely necessary, I esteem it, also, as all sufficient for the production :.of any given result-
therefore, "let the earth bring forth grass, the
herb yielding seed,  and the fruit tree yielding
fruit after his kind, whose seed is on" itself, upon
the earth, and it was so."   And as most of the
vegetable productions (there may he exceptions)
are thus propogated, and raised from-a seed or
germ,  and are susceptible of great improvement by a "judicious" course of cultivation—
and again of deteriorating by an injudicious
one—still, I have long been impressed by an
idea that,  in the economy of nature, there is
yet some germinating principles not well understood; and that where a soil containing the requisite amount, proportion and variety of the
inorganic elements of wheat, is suitably pre.
pared for its cultivation—yet_ not seeded and
occupied with it, or if after seeding is prevented by some mishap from maturing, by absorbing from the soil there its elementary principles
—then that soil, thus prepared, possessing the
elements of vegetation, will not remain inac-
tive—a crop of some variety or kind is very
certain to be produced; and is not the p'robabil-
ity greater that it may prove to be a crop of
chess, (for the germination and growth t>f which
the elementary principles in the soil appears so
appropriate and congenial))  than that it shall
be some other crop requiring in its "formation
and composition; a different proportion,' combination and variety of these elementary prin-