AND FARMING PRODUCE. 305 



period is employed in drawing together the whole 

 stock of material in the plant, and concentrating 

 it within the grain. The second, in disposing of 

 it, so that it may be kept uninjured and unim- 

 paired, until it may be wanted. The one is the 

 season of fructification, or the building up of the 

 grain ; the other, of protecting and furnishing 

 and maturing it for ulterior ends and purposes. 

 Fructification brings the albuminous portions of 

 grain to their maximum. Maturation preserves 

 the whole,' by introducing the most indestructible 

 of all elements, carbon, in excess into it. And 

 this is done by slightly diminishing the azotised 

 combinations, as tending to induce a contrary 

 result. So that thorough ripening of grain chiefly 

 hardens and endurates the testa or husk, which 

 we reject as unfit for food, at the expense of the 

 material which alone can nourish us, it betters 

 the bran, &c. but impoverishes the flour and the 

 meal. 



As nature intends the seeds of grain to ger- 

 minate soon after they are shed, this diminution 

 of the useful parts of the grain is exceedingly 

 slight. Still there are other considerations which 

 make this a subject of much importance both to the 

 farmer in particular, and the population of a 

 R r 



