AMERICAN WHEAT AND CORN. 



67 



AVERAGE COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CORN. 



Among the determinations of the ash and nitrogen in the crop of 

 1883, given in the preceding tables, there is as little variation as in pre- 

 vious analyses, and the conclusions derived from the latter are con- 

 firmed. 



The average of all the determinations for each year and for both to- 

 gether vary only in the hundredths of a per cent. 



Corn may be said, therefore, without doubt, to be very constant in 

 its composition within narrow limits. 



An occasional exception will no doubt appear, as is the case of the 

 ash in serial Ko. 1986, from Colorado, which rises to 3.08 per cent., 

 but among over two hundred analyses this is hardly remarkable. 



The averages for the States, as would be expected, agree well. Col- 

 orado is represented by only four specimens, which happen to be below 

 the average, while California, represented by eleven, raises the average 

 for the Pacific slope, which, in the previous report, after the analyses 

 of two specimens from Oregon, appeared very low. 



Such analyses by other investigators as have been collected since the 

 appearance of the last bulletin on this subject appear here in a table 

 by themselves. The results there given coincide with our own. 



WEIGHT OF KERNELS OF COEN IN DIFFERENT PORTIONS OF THE 



COUNTRY. 



Previous results showed that corn varied in weight from 53 grains 

 per hundred kernels to 23 grains, averaging about 37. How far lo- 

 cality and surroundings influenced this has been to a degree deter- 

 mined by the examination of specimens collected by the agents of the 

 Department from all parts of the Union. The results are here tabu- 

 lated : 



