The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-07-29
Agriculture.
CHESS Oh CHEAT IN THE oAT CROP.

I-Mr. Barbrsy of Sampson Gives His Views
Cor. of The Progressive Farmer.
The writer is not an agriculturist, !
but a clodhopper, hayseeder, but Mr..
Alexander will probably find solution
TO his question in the following:
The chief aim in nature whether an
inal or vegetable, is to reproduce it
self: and under normal conditions the
work is accomplished with such accu-
facv as to leave no grounds for com
ulaint. But now and then, for one
cause or another, the work is hindered
and a terrible struggle ensues, with
results more or less astonishing, ac-
cording to the character and extent
Of the hindrance.
Take, for example, the corn plant:
it is bi-sexual, that is, the male and
female parts, tassel and silks, are sep
arate; and when not. disturbed, the
product of the union of these parts is
natural-perfect corn is produced.
But let a worm or anything else kill
or injure the bud, the vital part of the
plant, and nature at once begins an
effort to overcome the hindrance; so
sprouts are thrown up, and if allowed
to stand there often appears a few
grains or a small, shrimpy ear on the
tassel-at the wrong place, showing
what struggle the plant had in its
effort to accomplish what it started
out to do, namely, to reproduce itself.
The wound made by the worm or
other cause seems to have changed the
position of the sexes, changed their
natural order, and a freak is the re-
suit, the grain more or less changed,
and also the cob; but it is corn all the
same. still, by-way of distinguishing
it from the natural grain, it could,
with propriety, have been called
chess, as well as the freak in the oaJ
plant. The cold injured the bud or
Ital part of the oat plant and nature
vent to work to overcome it, and did
the best that circumstances would
permit, and the sO-called chess was
the result; but it Is oats just the
same. Oats were planted and those
same. Oats were planted and those
plants which escaped uninjured pro-
duced good samples of their kind, the
injured ones, poor samples.
Now, the fact that the fall sown
pats only, and the injured plants only,
Produced the so-caiied cLess, makes Is
af evident that this position is cor
,ect.
The writer has seen freaks in the
hape of human beings and other ami
nails that were as prodigious as any
hing that ever happened to the Neck
nburg oat crop, which could be ac-
ounted for in no other way than upon
ae principle that natures laws had
'een tampered with, but they were af-
F their kind just the same, and 1t
EiLl stands as a universal law in ma
Ire that '1ike begets like
De-cneracy is a slow process like
Eading up, and as the oats would
lave produced perfect grain but for
De cold, Gas is evident from the fact
lat the uninjured plants and plants
Rom spring sowing never produce the
%caIIcd "chess,") it can not be attrib-
red TO such cause!
The "tares" mentioned in the Scrip
Pres were doubtless weeds of various
ends, OF perhaps of some particular
1d such as often infest the wheat
eop now.
This power to reproduce given all
~'mg things, whether animal or veg
Sablc. was fixed at the time of the
'earion-"each after its own kind"
nth the Scriptures, and it will ever
*na.n thus.
VIM. A. BARBREY.
Sampson Co., N. G.