WHALE FISHERY PORTS. New Bedford, Mass.. Dartmouth, Westport, 3 New London, Conn.. 128 181 The Of these 169 vessels, 137 were at sea. products of the fishery imported at different periods have been as follows: 1853 1860 1870 on reaching the deck are cut up in square pieces YEARS. The imports of whale oil attained their maximum in 1851, and those of sperm oil and whalebone in 1853. The value of the products of the national whale fishery imported during the year ending June 30, 1875, was $2,841,002. The distribution of the whaling fleet for 1876 is estimated as follows: N. and S. Atlantic, 77 vessels; Indian ocean and New Holland, 15; New Zealand, 13; Pacific coast and off-shore ground, 23; N. Pacific, 18; Cumberland inlet, 4.-The whale fishery in Great Britain, once of considerable magnitude, has of late years been almost entirely abandoned. In 1833 there were 129 ships engaged in it, and the value of the products received was £437,283. In 1842 the number of ships was 75, and the value of products £364,680. There are now 10 or 15 steamers from Dundee and a few from two or three other ports employed in the Greenland seas in the prosecution of the seal and whale fisheries, chiefly the former. France in 1837 had 44 ships engaged in the whaling business, measuring 19,128 tons, and with crews numbering 1,615 men. In 1868 she had only three ships. Holland, which was once largely interested in this fishery, has entirely abandoned it. Whales have recently been pursued in steamers from a small island in the Varangar fiord on the coast of Norway. They are struck with harpoons discharged from a cannon, and when secured are towed back to the island. According to the latest returns, 9 vessels of 2,220 tons were employed in whaling from New South Wales, and 16 of 4,088 tons from Tasmania.-The whale fishery has been prosecuted for more than 600 years. The bay of Biscay in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries swarmed with one of the smaller species of whale, probably either the beluga or globicephalus, and the Biscayans became adepts in their capture. After the discovery of Ameri ca, the voyages of English and Dutch explorers to the northern seas led to the discovery of the northern haunts of the balana or great "right" whale, and the Dutch entered largely into the whale fishery. Great numbers were found in the vicinity of the island of Spitzbergen, and the Dutch erected a considerable village, which they named Smeerenberg (smeeren, to melt), on the coast of that island as a resort for their ships for boiling the blubber. After some years the whales abandoned the shores of Spitzbergen and were found on the Greenland coasts, and the Dutch ships brought the blubber home. In 1680 they had 260 ships and about 14,000 sailors engaged in this fishery; but from that time their traffic in oil began gradually to decline. England attempted to take the place which Holland had occupied in the fishery, but with slight success. In 1815, when the fishery was at its height, there were only 164 ships engaged in it. The New England colonies embarked in this fishery at an early period. In 1690 and for 50 years later it was prosecuted in boats from the shore, the whale being a frequent visitor of the coasts and bays of New England. In 1740, the whales having abandoned the coast, the fishermen followed them in larger vessels and to the arctic and antarctic coasts. In 1758, and for several years subsequently, Massachusetts alone employed 304 vessels, measuring about 28,000 tons, in the northern and southern whale fisheries. At first the whalers' attention was turned to the capture of the right whale, but in 1712 Christopher Hussey of Nantucket, being driven off shore, fell in with and killed a sperm whale, and within a few years the Nantucket fishermen were equally ready to capture one as the other. That island, Martha's Vineyard, and Cape Cod monopolized the business till shortly before the revolution, when New Bedford, now the largest whaling port in the world, began sending out whale ships. Nantucket long held the supremacy as a whaling port, but the business there has now entirely ceased.See "Etchings of a Whaling Cruise," by J. Ross Browne (New York, 1846); "The Whale and his Captors," by H. T. Cheever (1850); "Moby Dick, or the White Whale," by Herman Melville (1855); "The Whale Fishery" (1855); and "Whaling and Fishing," by Charles Nordhoff (Cincinnati, 1857). WHARTON, a S. E. county of Texas, bounded N. E. by the San Bernard river, and intersected by the Colorado; area, 1,094 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 3,426, of whom 2,910 were colored. The surface is generally level, and the soil highly fertile. The Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio railroad crosses the N. part. The chief productions in 1870 were 143,900 bushels of Indian corn, 8,540 of sweet potatoes, and 1,217 bales of cotton. There were 667 horses, 563 milch cows, 4,672 other cattle, and 2,010 swine. Capital, Wharton. WHARTON, Francis, an American author, born in Philadelphia in 1820. He graduated at Yale | college in 1839, studied law, and settled in his native city. He was professor of English literature, jurisprudence, and history in Kenyon college at Gambier, O., from 1856 to 1863, when he was ordained a clergyman of the Episcopal church, and became rector of St. Paul's church in Brookline, Mass. In 1866 he became professor of homiletics and pastoral care in the Episcopal theological school, Cambridge, Mass., which office he still retains (1876). He has published a "Treatise on the Criminal Law of the United States" (Philadelphia, 1846; 6th ed., 3 vols., 1868); "State Trials of the United States during the Administrations of Washington and Adams" (1849); "Precedents of Indictments and Pleas adapted to the Use both of the Courts of the United States and those of the several States" (1849); "A Treatise on the Law of Homicide in the United States" (1855); "A Treatise on Theism and Skepticism" (1859); with N. Stillé, M. D., "A Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence" (1855; revised ed., 1860); “The Silence of Scripture, a Series of Lectures" (1867); "Treatise on the Conflict of Laws" (1872); and "The Law of Agency and Agents" (1876). He was for a time associate editor of the "Episcopal Recorder," Philadelphia. WHARTON, Henry, an English clergyman, born in Worstead, Norfolk, Nov. 9, 1664, died in Newton, Cambridgeshire, March 5, 1695. He graduated at Caius college, Cambridge, in 1684, and in 1686 became assistant to Dr. William Cave in the compilation of his Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria (1688–’9). He was afterward appointed one of the chaplains of Archbishop Sancroft. His numerous works include Anglia Sacra (2 vols. fol., 1691), a collection of ecclesiastical biographies; “A Defence of Pluralities" (8vo, 1692); and a pamphlet criticising Burnet's history. WHARTON. I. Thomas Wharton, marquis of, an English statesman, born about 1640, died in London, April 12, 1715. He was the eldest son of Philip, fourth Baron Wharton, with whom he was among the first to join William of Orange upon his arrival in England in 1688. He held several important offices under William, and subsequently was one of the commissioners for arranging the treaty of union with Scotland. He succeeded to his father's title in 1696, and in 1706 was created Viscount Winchenden and Earl Wharton; and he was also made a peer of Ireland as earl of Rathfarnham and marquis of Catherlough. In 1708 he was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland, which office he held for two years, Addison being his secretary; and on the accession of George I. he was created marquis of Wharton, and lord privy seal in the Halifax ministry. He was throughout life a devoted whig, and unrivalled as a party manager, but notoriously immoral and unprincipled. According to Bishop Percy, he was the author of the famous Irish ballad of "Lillibulero." II. Philip Wharton, duke of, son of the preceding, born in December, 1698, WHARTON WHEAT 585 wool, 16,600 of butter, and 1,364 tons of hay. There were 131 horses, 617 milch cows, 1,485 other cattle, 10,070 sheep, and 1,634 swine. Capital, Whatcom. WHATELY, Richard, an English prelate, born in London, Feb. 1, 1787, died in Dublin, Oct. 8, 1863. He graduated at Oxford in 1808, became a fellow of Oriel college in 1811, was died in Catalonia, Spain, May 31, 1731. At 16 years of age he married a woman far inferior in rank to himself, which so disconcerted his parents that they both died heart-broken, it is said, within a year. In conformity with his father's plans, however, he went in 1716 to Geneva to complete his education, but soon parted from his Calvinist tutor, and travelled to Avignon, where he received from the pre-appointed Bampton lecturer in 1822, and the tender the title of duke of Northumberland. He next went to Paris, where he borrowed from the widow of James II. £2,000, promising to employ it in the interest of the Jacobites. In the latter part of 1716 he took his seat in the Irish house of peers, and greatly distinguished himself as a debater. Within a year he was created duke of Wharton in the English peerage. In 1720 he took his seat in the English house of peers, where he soon threw the weight of his brilliant talents against the ministry. Within three years he became greatly involved by his extravagance; and early in 1724, having for several months edited a semiweekly political paper called the "True Brit-poleon Bonaparte" (London, 1819); "On the on," he went to Vienna, and thence to Madrid. He soon made no secret of his adherence to the pretender, and at the siege of Gibraltar in 1727 he openly appeared as aide-de-camp to the count of Torres. The king of Spain made him colonel of an Irish regiment in the Spanish service, but in England he was attainted for high treason and dispossessed of the remnant of his property. The remainder of his life was passed in wandering. In 1732 appeared the "Life and Writings of Philip, late Duke of Wharton" (2 vols. 8vo), containing his "True Briton" papers and speech in defence of Atterbury; and there is another publication in 2 vols. 8vo, purporting to contain the poetical works of himself and his friends. WHARTON, Thomas, an English physician, born in Yorkshire about 1610, died in London in 1673. He was fellow of the London college of physicians, and a lecturer in Gresham college. He is remembered principally by his discovery of the excretory duct of the submaxillary gland, known as "Wharton's duct." His chief publication was his Adenographia, seu Descriptio Glandularum totius Corporis (London, 1656). WHATCOM, a N. W. county of Washington territory, bounded N. by British Columbia and W. by Washington sound, lying between the gulf of Georgia and the strait of Fuca; area, about 4,100 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 534. It is watered by several streams. The coast is indented by Bellingham bay, near which is Lake Whatcom, and in the vicinity are coal mines. The interior is covered with dense forests, and the E. part is crossed by lofty and rugged mountains. Mt. Baker in this region is over 10,000 ft. high. Lumber is the principal source of wealth. The chief productions in 1870 were 1,275 bushels of wheat, 5.430 of oats, 1,686 of barley, 2,392 of peas and beans, 28,600 of potatoes, 30,210 lbs. of same year became rector of Halesworth in Suffolk. In 1825 he was chosen principal of St. Alban's hall, Oxford, in 1830 was appointed professor of political economy at Oxford, and in 1831 was consecrated archbishop of Dublin and bishop of Glendalagh. He took an active part in establishing the "national system of education" in Ireland, and endowed the professorship of political economy in the university of Dublin. He resigned his connection with the board of-Irish education in 1853. In theology he is reckoned one of the founders of the broad church party. His most important works are: "Historic Doubts relative to NaUse and Abuse of Party Feeling in Religion" (Bampton lectures, 1822); "The Christian's Duty with respect to the Established Government and the Laws" (1821); "Essays on some of the Peculiarities of the Christian Religion" (1825; new American ed., Andover, 1870); "Elements of Logic" (1826); "Elements of Rhetoric" (1828); "Essays on some of the Difficulties in the Writings of St. Paul," &c. (1828); "Introductory Lectures to Political Economy" (1831); "Introductory Lectures on the Study of St. Paul's Epistles" (1849); "English Synonymes " (1851); "Bacon's Essays, with Notes" (1856); Seripture Doctrine concerning the Sacraments" (1857); "Introductory Lessons on Mind " (1859); "Introductory Lessons on the British Constitution (1859); "Lectures on some of the Parables" (1860); "Lectures on Prayer" (1860); "General View of the Rise, Progress, and Corruption of Christianity, with a Sketch of the Author, and a catalogue of his Writings" (New York, 1860); and "Miscellaneous Lectures and Reviews" (London, 1861). His "Miscellaneous Remains" have been edited by Miss E. J. Whately (1864). WHEAT (A.-S. hurate, white, in distinction from rye and other dark-colored grains), a cereal, triticum vulgare, which has been cultivated from the earliest antiquity, and now furnishes the principal breadstuff in all civilized countries. The wheat genus, triticum (the classical name), belongs to the subtribe of grasses called hordeinea, from barley, which is in structure closely related to wheat, and rye also belongs in the same division; all these have their one- to many-flowered spikelets on opposite sides of a zigzag jointed stem or rachis, which is excavated to form a notch at each joint. In triticum there is but a single spikelet at each joint, its two glumes placed transversely, and it is from three- to several | tude, though at a sufficient elevation it may be grown near the equator. Wheat is largely cultivated in most European countries; some which a few years ago were exporters do not now raise enough for their own consumption; the principal wheat-exporting countries at present, besides the United States, are Russia, Denmark, Hungary, Turkey, and Chili. In the United States wheat growing has regularly ex flowered; the lower palet is pointed, or furnished at the tips with an awn of variable length; stamens three. Besides the grainproducing species, all of which are annuals, there are several with perennial roots, which by some botanists have been placed in a distinct genus, agropyron, the most important of which is the troublesome T. repens. (See COUCH GRASS.) Wheat has a dense four-sided spike; the turgid spikelets are three to five-tended westward; in some of the older states flowered, with ventricose, blunt glumes; the an improvident course of agriculture exhausted palets awned or awnless, and the grain free the land until remunerative crops could no from the upper palet, with a longitudinal fur- longer be raised; in the lack of a system of row on one side, very turgid on the other, rotation the soil became stocked with the seeds and hairy at the top. The spring and winter of weeds, and the increase of destructive inwheats, which have been sometimes described sects added to the difficulties which made it as distinct, are only forms produced by culti- necessary to seek new land; but where better vation, as it has been repeatedly demonstrated farming prevailed, the crop is still profitably that by a few years' successive growing spring grown. The new prairie soil of the western wheat may be converted into the winter vari-states allows the crop to be raised without the ety, and vice versa. Like other cereals, wheat expense for fertilizers to which the eastern faris not certainly known in the wild state, and mer is subjected, though this is in great meaits origin has been the subject of much specu- sure offset by the cost of transporting western lation; some suppose it to be a plant now ex- grain to market. The chief wheat-growing tinct in the wild state, others that it is the cul- states and their production in 1873 were: tivated form of what are now regarded as dis- Iowa, 34,600,000 bushels; Illinois, 28,417,000; tinct wild species. De Candolle is disposed to Minnesota, 28,056,000; Wisconsin, 26,322,000; accept the testimony of travellers who say they California, 21,504,000; Indiana, 20,832,000; have found T. vulgare in various parts of Asia Ohio, 18,567,000; Pennsylvania, 15,548,000; in localities where it was not likely to have Michigan, 14,214,000; Missouri, 11,927,000; escaped from cultivation. About 1855 M. Fa- Tennessee, 7,414,000; Kentucky, 7,225,000; bre asserted that he had established by experi- New York, 7,047,000; Virginia, 5,788,000; ment the fact that wheat was agilops ovata (a Maryland, 5,262,000; Kansas, 4,330,000; Necommon grass in southern Europe), developed braska, 3,584,000; Oregon, 3,127,000; North by cultivation; he asserted that by successive Carolina, 2,795,000; West Virginia, 2,657,000; sowings he had produced forms of agilops Georgia, 2,176,000; and New Jersey, 1,948,which pass for species, and by continuing this 000. The total production of the United States course for 12 years produced perfect wheat. in 1874 was 309,102,700 bushels, from 24,967,His experiments are not credited, as the grass 027 acres, averaging 12-3 bushels to the acre. is now known to have been accidentally or Nothing in the history of our agriculture is otherwise hybridized with wheat. The varie- more striking than the remarkable increase ties of wheat are very numerous, one French of wheat growing on the Pacific coast, espeexperimenter having cultivated over 150, and cially in California, where the crop in 1850 another 322. The plant differs in stature, was only 17,200 bushels, most of the grain habit, and foliage, in the size and shape of the consumed being at that time brought from spike or head, the number of flowers in the Chili. Both soil and climate are most favorspikelet, the shape and size of the floral enve- able to its culture; 2,000 to 4,000 acres is a lopes, the presence or absence of a beard or moderate size for a wheat farm, and those awn and its character, and the size, form, color, ten times as large are not rare. The climate and hairiness of the grain. So widely differ- is so rainless in summer that the bags of grain ent are some of the varieties, which have re- may be stacked up in the open field for weeks, tained their identity through centuries of cul- without fear of injury.-Probably not more tivation, that some botanists think they must than a dozen varieties are in general cultivahave originated from four or five distinct spe- tion in this country, though each is apt to cies; other kinds vary greatly with the charac- have several local names, and a variety if long ter of the soil. The mention of wheat in the cultivated in one district may seem much unOld Testament, and its culture by the ancient like the same that has been grown for several Egyptians, are proofs of its antiquity, and Chi- years in a different locality. New sorts are nese history declares that it was introduced in- frequently offered as superior in productiveto China by the emperor Shin-nung about 2700 ness to all others; but every good farmer B. C.-The limit to the successful cultivation knows that the more productive the wheat, of wheat is not determined so much by the the better must be the soil. Spring wheat cold of winter as by the temperature of sum- is sown and harvested the same year, while mer, 57-2° being the minimum mean tempera- winter wheat is sown in autumn, usually in ture in which it will mature. The southern September, when it germinates, and the plant limits vary between 20° and 25° N. and S. lati- grows until stopped by cold weather; it re WHEAT mains dormant during the winter, and renews its growth in the spring, ripening about midsummer. These groups are subdivided into white and red or amber varieties, and these again into bald and bearded wheat. Among the spring varieties, the China, also called tea wheat (as it is said to have come from a grain found in a box of tea), Mediterranean. spring, and Canada club are leading kinds. Of winter wheats the white varieties are most esteemed; the most prominent of these are: the Diehl, bald and early ripening; the Clauson or Seneca, with a red chaff and white grain; Boughton (often called Oregon), white Michigan, white Mediterranean, and Soule's. Among the red or amber varieties are the red Mediterranean, one of the best for ordinary soils, the amber, the Fultz, the Witter, and others. Formerly spring wheats brought a lower price than the others, but since the recent introduction of what is called the "new process" of grinding, in which the grain is first deprived of its outer covering, they are preferred for some kinds of flour, and bring as much or more than the winter kinds. Wheat in a rotation is sown on a turned clover sod, or on land which has been heavily manured the previous year for a corn or root crop; fresh stable manure is objectionable, but artificial fertilizers are used, and lime, where there is much organic matter in the soil, is beneficial; careful cultivators take great pains to clean their seed wheat from other seeds, and to get rid of all the light kernels; where smut is apprehended, the seed is wetted with a solution of sulphate of copper or strong brine, to kill the fungus spores. The seed is sown broadcast, or preferably by means of a drill, which deposits it in rows and covers it; when sown broadcast it is harrowed or ploughed in. In spring the winter wheat is harrowed. The weeds most troublesome to wheat in this country are the cockle (lychnis githago), of the pink family, and chess or cheat (bromus secalinus), which is sometimes so abundant that ignorant persons believe it to be degenerate wheat. In some of the New York wheatgrowing counties gromwell (lithospermum Winter Wheat-Bald and Bearded. 587 arvense), there called red-root, is one of the most serious obstacles to the farmer. Rust and smut are minute vegetable forms which often cause serious damage to the stalk and grain. (See FUNGI.) Wheat is liable to be injured by several insects. (See HESSIAN FLY, WEEVIL, WHEAT FLY, and WHEAT MOTH.)-. The history of most of the wheat-growing portions of this country shows a regular decrease in the yield; counties in the state of New York in which the average yield at the beginning of the century was 20 to 30 bushels to the acre, now return 5 to 7 bushels; in the fertile soil of Ohio the average diminished in 50 years from 26 bushels to half that amount; and so long as there remain new lands to be cultivated this will probably continue to be the case. That this decrease is due to the lack of a proper system of agriculture is shown by the fact that in England, where the land has been under cultivation for centuries, the average yield is 36 bushels to the acre. Seeds of wheat retain their vitality from 3 to 7 years; the stories of "mummy wheat," which is said to have germinated after remaining thousands of years in the tombs of Egypt, are now discredited; the cunning Arabs have even supplied credulous travellers with mummied maize grains and dahlia tubers, neither of which were known before the discovery of America.-Besides triticum vulgare, a few other species are cultivated in some countries, but have not been found desirable in this. The Egyptian wheat (T. turgidum) has heavy heads which bend over to one side, and hairy spikelets; forms of it have been somewhat cultivated in England, on low lands, but it yields an inferior flour. The onegrained wheat (T. monococcum), also called St. Peter's corn, has but one fertile floret in the spikelet, the grain of which ripening gives the head much the appearance of barley; its cultivation is confined to the mountainous portions of Europe. Spelt wheat, or spelt (T. spelta), bears a similar name in several European languages, and is much cultivated on the continent; it 1. Spelt (Triticum spelta). has a flat spike, which 2. St. Peter's Corn (Triti readily breaks up at the joints, and the grain is adherent to the palet or husk; it is only rarely grown in this country by Europeans, who have been accustomed to it at home.-Wheat properly stands at the cum monococcum). |