AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 133 



Britain, at least for a time, until she finds some plant to talie its impor- 

 tant office in the feed of the British animals. The necessity of a siicceda- 

 neum for the turnip, is foreseen by this learned society. 



Experiments with special manures have been tried on a large scale, and 

 the results are here stated i 



On Oats. — Gruano gave greatest weight, 43 lbs. per bushel ; dissolved 

 bone about the same. On oats, 17 special manures gave no more than the 

 common barn yard manure, viz, 89 lbs. 



0?i icheat^ the 17, one of which, sulphate of Ammonia, gave 49 bushels, 

 and common barn yard, 37 bushels. 



On hay, sulphate of ammonia gave 256 stone weight; common barn 

 yard manure, 140 stone weight. 



[Society of Arts, London.] 



COFFEE IMITATIONS, 



Prof. Graham, Dr, Stenhouse and Mr. Dugald Campbell, report their 

 investigation to the Board of Inland Revenue, They examined the roasted 

 articles because they are only given roasted to the public — and new proper- 

 ties are given, especially to beans by t' e roasting. The woody tissue of 

 the fresh bean is horny and differs from ordinary woody fibre in its compo- 

 sition, and is also said not to yield sugar when treated wit'i sulphuric acid. 

 By the roasting, this fibre undergoes partial decomposition, and becomes 

 friable, and the difficulty of pulverizing th-e seed and exhausting it by vv^ater, 

 is removed. There is produced at the same time, a soluble brown bitter 

 matter, — ^aud there is the aroma, produced by the roasting, which arises 

 from a brown oil called caffeone, so powerful that a quantity of it, almost 

 insensible, will aromatize two or three pints of water. A great many seeds 

 have been tried in France, as substitutes for coffee — but there does not 

 appear to be any one truly equivalent to coffee, either pliysiologicallj' or 

 chemically. Indian corn, barley, oats, grain of all sorts, seeds of the yel- 

 low flag, grey pea, milk betch, hibisons, holly, Spanish broom, acorns, 

 chesnuts, the small lupin, haricots, horse beans, sunflowe • seed, gooseberry 

 pips, grape do, eglantme do, capsules of box. Of the seeds enumerated, 

 the yellow Jlag, a common March plant in England, appears to have the 

 only similarity to coffee. The roots most used are chicory, carrot, beet, 

 rush nut, ground nut, scratch weed, fern, butchers' broom — all these have 

 some sugar, and the flavor of burnt sugar is a general favorite in our bev- 

 erages. Chicory contains thirty per cent of sugar. It was first intreduced 

 in Holland, in 1801, and is now larcfelv used on the Continent and in Eno;- 

 lond ; six millions of killogranis are annually used in France. The ashes 

 of the plants were examined as well as of coffee. The ash of coffee is re- 

 markably distinguished from roots and grains by the small quantity of silica 

 it contains — not over the half of one per cent — while in ashes of chicory 

 we found 10.69, 13.13, 30,71, and 35.85 per cent. The sesqui oxide of 

 iron, under one per cent in coffee, and from 3-13 to 5.32 in chicory.. 



