154 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



Soda, 12.379 



1-ime, 3.075 



Magnesia, 3.597 



Chlorine, 3.855 



Sulphuric acid, 5.959 



100.000 



The same experimenter found, in the analysis of numeious 

 varieties of corn, p. 820, that in a plat giving 105.68 lbs. of ash, 

 the result was distributed among the several parts of the plant 

 as follows : 



Grain,. 8.15 



Cob, 2.54 



Husks, 9.86 



Leaves and sheaths, 45.60 



Stalks and tassels, 39.53 



105.68 



Calling an acre of corn about six tons, there will be removed 

 by every such crop about 600 lbs. of inorganic matter. In a 

 comparison of the exhausting influence of a crop of sugar cane 

 and Indian corn respectively, a deduction should be made in 

 favor of the sugar cane of all that proportion of the ash which 

 enters into the grain and cob of the Indian corn, since the sugar 

 cane in Louisiana bears no seed. If the remaining • stalk and 

 leaves of the corn give an ash corresponding very nearly with 

 that oi the sugar cane, the result would be that the latter would 

 be considerably less exhausting to the soil than the former; and 

 such, I understand, is considered to be the fact by the cultivators 

 of the cane. When it is considered, moreover, that phosphoric 

 acid, magnesia, potash and soda enter very largely into the ash 

 of the grain of Indian corn, the difference is still more in favor 

 of the sugar cane. Silicic and phosphoric acid are probably 

 about equally found in each, and in both more largely than in 

 common, vegetables and hardwood trees. The soil of Louisiana 

 being principally the result of deposit from the Mississippi, may 

 be supposed to abound largely in all the inorganic elements 



