150 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Oatmeal: 



Water 'J.'J 



Protein 15.1 



Fats „ 7.1 



Carbohydrates 68.1 



Mineral matters 2.0 



Total nutrients 92.3 



Potential energy in one pound 1,845 calories. 



Eye flour: 



Water 13.1 



Protein 6.7 



Fats 0.8 



Carbohydrates 78 . 7 



Mineral matters 0.7 



Total nutrients 86.9 



Potential energy in one pound 1,620 calories. 



It will be remarked that the difference between maize meal and 

 wheat flour consists only in a slightly larger proportion of fats and 

 a slightly less proportion of protein, a matter very easily balanced by 

 giving consideration to the other kinds of food which may be used 

 by the bread-eater. Again, it is hardly to be supposed that the 

 Scotchmen who listened to Sir William Crookes admitted in their 

 minds that wheat flour possessed any greater potential energy in the 

 development either of muscle or of mind than the oatmeal to which 

 they have been habituated for so many generations. I doubt if any 

 New England Yankee who had been brought up on the diet of corn 

 (maize) bread and baked beans, the latter supplying the protein 

 element in abundance, would admit any greater development of the 

 muscle or brain by exclusive dependence on wheat for the bread of 

 life. It is not, however, my purpose to deal with the relative food 

 values of wheat and other grains; it is simply to take up this extraor- 

 dinary delusion of Sir William Crookes in respect to the potential 

 of the wheat-producing area of this country. His theory is salvation 

 by chemistry, and he rightfully calls attention to the necessity for 

 obtaining a cheap and abundant supply of nitrogen. All the other 

 elements for fertilizing the soil are relatively abundant at low cost, 

 especially in this country. Our enormous supply of the phosphates 

 of lime and potash gives assurance on this matter, and our one de- 

 ficiency, or rather the one element heretofore of high cost, has been 

 the necessary proportion of nitrogen required to maintain an even 

 balance in the soil. 



I am surprised that Sir William Crookes should attribute so 

 little importance to the recent discovery of the influence of bacteria, 

 which living and dying in nodules attached to the stalks of the 



