Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1851-09-25
The Coad Wheat.


Our readers will remember the notice /
which was taken of variety of wheat,
which bears the name of the gentleman /
who had raised a considerable quantity |
last year from small package obtained /
from the Patent Office. The extraordin- |
ary qualities awarded to this wheat crea-
ted considerable demand for it, and the |
seed was sold for four dollars per bushel, |
and as high as ten dollars was offered for |.
it, A small package was obtained from
the Patent Office in 1916 by GEORGE D. |
CoAD, Esq, who presented it to his neph-
ew j. EDWIN COAB esq, Of Great Mills,
st. Mary's county, Maryland, who culti-
waited it in lis garden in 1847. The pro-
duct was pint and half; in 1S48, two
bushels; in l $40, about twenty-five bushels
were made, twenty ofwhich were sown, and
five otherwise disposed of; in 1850 Mr.
Coad reaped three hundred business; one
hundred and fifty of which he sold or dis
tributed gratuitously, and the other one
hundred and fifty bushels were sown, from
which his present crop was reaped. Just
/ before harvest the father of Mr.. Coad left
with us some of the heads of this wheat,
| (of which he had also about forty acres
in cultivation and the accounts we had
received of it induced US to accept an in
yitation to visit him to satisfy ourselfofthe
character Of the wheat then growing on
his own and on the farm of his son. We
arrived there on the 18th of June, and
found some parts of the field ready for
harvesting. We passed through it in va
rious directions, to obtain a fair sample
of the whole field, which was brought up
and exhibited at the meeting of the State
Society on the 18th ultimo There is
nothing positively known as to the origin
Of this wheat. As well as can be remem-
bered by the Messrs. Coad, the package
from the Patent Office was labelled that
it was from New York, where fifty-two
bushels to the acre had been raised from
it; another account is that it was received
in package from Troy. The heads of
the wheat are very compact, rather long,
with three grains in bar-sometimes
four are found-the grains unusually
large. 1t is a white and bearded wheat
The average height of the field was five
and a half feet, though many stalks
were six and half feet high. The straw
! is very bright, uncommonIy large at the
bottom, gradually tapering to the head,
where it is very small. This wheat RI
pens slowly, but is not late wheat
The grain has improved each successive
year since it was cultiyatd, showing that
it is peculiarly suited to our soil and
climate. Mr.. Coad's soil is principally a
white oak, heretofore lined, and the field
had from one hundred to two hundred
pounds of guano to the acre put on it
last fall. Most of the field was corn
ground, the wheat soWn after the corn
was taken off last year; it was seeded in
October, some as late as the 18th of No
vember, and cultivated the same as his
other wheat-some of it drilled in, Zone
and quarter bushels to the acre. and
: some broad cast, Zone and half to two
, bushels to the acre y but no difference
could be found in the field between that
, where one and half and the larger guam
tity was sown. Last year it escaped the
rust, though several other varieties-yiz.
the China, the old red chaf, and Etruri-
an-in It's immediate vicinity were much
injured by 1.-THE Etrurian less than the
others In walking through various por-
tions of the field we could discern but
little difference in any part of it. Last
year picked acre, accurately measured,
: produced thirty-fve bushels; the whole
: field averaged twenty-five to the acre
The season was far more favorable this
year, and we can hardley be mistaken In
saying that the field will produce an av-
erage of forty bushels to the acre. Mr..
Coad has about one hundred acres in this
variety, and his father forty. We have
never witnessed so glorious sight, and
we doubt if such a field was ever seen in
this country before, certainly not IN
Maryland. The heads contain an aver
age of seventy-fve grains, twice as large
as the common grains; some ofthe heads
which were counted had upwards OF one
hundred grains. We have shown the sam
pie we brought home with us to gentle
men from the best wheat districts of our
own and the States of New York, Penn
sylyania, and Virginia, and, with but a
single exception, they all pronounced it
superior to any othor they had ever seen,
Mr.. Coad sold his surplus seed last year,
as before rem arked, for four dollars per
bushel, and has numerous orders on hand,
some remaining over from last year. He
/, intends sending all he hastosellto Messrs.
Neale & LGckett, of Baltimore, put up in
two bushcl bags, who will sell it at four
dollars per bushel.